Legend: Book 3A: Sword of Seals
by Herr Wozzeck
Summary: Willie and Kuranga are separated from Ike, Fiordiligi, and Maria. As Willie find himself stranded on a new continent without Kuranga, he gets sucked into a conflict thousands of years in the making. Spinoff of Legend
1. Chapter 1: The Rebel Forces

Okay, everyone. Welcome back to this thing. This fic happens in tandem with the third book of Legend, hence the 'A' part of it. You know the rest.

Anyhoos, let's get started here!

* * *

Chapter 1: The Rebel Forces

Kuranga and Willie had both given up shouting a long time ago, the two of them resigning themselves to fate as they let the ocean currents take them on their way. There had been almost no conversation between the two, so Willie did not notice the growing gap between them. After a while of drifting around Willie had somehow managed to fall asleep despite the fact that the waves kept tickling his face, and he had quite forgotten that he should not have been sleeping on the side of his face where the eyepatch was.

Thus, the surprise in him was great when he woke up to find his legs just hitting the shore line, the tide dropping him off on a somewhat sandy beach that was covered in fog. Some of the sand got into his eyepatch, and then the young man woke up abruptly.

Crying out into the night, he jumped up, pulling at his eyepatch and facing the ground so that the grains of sand could roll out of his eye hole and back onto the ground where they belonged. When he looked back up after cringing as he reapplied the eyepatch, he found himself on a beach that he did not know, the sand giving way to grass just a short while away. Anything else was invisible to him, as a somewhat thick fog hovered over the ground, obscuring most of what Willie could have seen with his eye.

"Me goddess..." said the Cockney boy in wonder as he found himself lost in the night.

A thought quickly occurred to him, and then he looked behind him to find that there was nobody there.

"Me goddess! Keranga!" cried Willie into the night. "Keranga! Were are yeh? Keranga?"

His cries were met with no reply, however, and then he found himself sitting down on the ground, looking down in defeat as he brushed the slightly wet hair away from his face.

"Me god..." he said to himself. "Dis cain't be 'appenin' te me!"

Willie shook his head, finding that he had no strength to even stand any more.

Slowly, the young man brought the plank over to where he was, setting it down on the sand and resting his head against it as the sleep overtook him.

The plank he used was not the best pillow, but it would have to do for the situation he was in. After all, he was separated, alone, and on a place he knew nothing about.

The young man only hoped that in the morning, he could set out to find Kuranga.

* * *

"Hey! What in the world are you doing here?"

With a cry, Willie jolted up from his position after hearing the yell that woke him up. As he looked around him, he found that the sun had risen a long time before he had woken up and that the fog that had pervaded the previous night had lifted. After a while of looking around him, Willie's emerald eye came to fall on a man in blue armor standing a short distance away from him. As he examined this person, he noticed that the man had a lance pointed at the Cockney boy's throat. Letting out a gasp of shock, he frowned quite suddenly.

"'Ey!" cried Willie, pushing at the lance. "You point dat ding away verm me face, ya 'ear?"

"I don't want to hear it!" cried the soldier in reply as the lance found itself back at Willie's throat. "Who gave you permission to lie down on the beach? You're supposed to be working, boy!"

"Workin'?" asked Willie, standing up as he felt the edge of the lance direct him to stand up. "But I ain't workin' fer no-one, Governor."

"Shut it, you!" cried the soldier. "You're going straight to Lord Nord's dungeons for your impudence!"

"'Ey!" cried Willie angrily. "I jest got 'ere on dis place, and I den't even no were I am! Dis ain't never good, Governor!"

"Oh, quite your jabbering and come with me!" said the soldier, pressing the lance head into Willie's throat.

The pressure against Willie's throat was not enough to kill him; rather, it let blood out of the Cockney boy that slid down his neck. However, this action did not break Willie's resolve the way he had intended it to, for then the Cockney boy's frown furrowed. Without another word, Willie let loose a fireball that burned the face of the opposing man, and he screamed as he felt his face get burned.

Without a moment's hesitation, Willie broke into a run in the direction away from the man that he was facing, the beach very quickly turning into a grassy plain up against a series of mountains. These mountains seemed to go by slowly as Willie ran by a river, looking for something that would denote any kind of safety. After a while, he finally found a bridge, and without a moment's notice he ran onto the bridge, looking behind him as he walked onto it to make sure the soldier was not following him.

Willie soon realized that this was unnecessary, for as soon as he looked forward, he crashed straight into a man and fell right on his ass afterwards, the eyepatch snapping against the edge of his eyehole as he landed on his butt. As the boy shook his head and tried to orient himself properly, he found himself being picked up by the collar of his green shirt as he was turned to stare into the eyes of a man with the same color armor.

"Are you trying to escape, boy?" asked the knight viciously as Willie squirmed in the air. "Men, take this impudent rascal to Nord at once!"

As Willie found himself getting bound by ropes, he found himself being almost powerless against these strange new people. Soon, he was being led away to a castle that the boy just noticed was there. They dragged him all the way there despite Willie's overly loud protests that he could walk just fine without their help.

* * *

"But I'm tellin' yeh, I den't no novin' abut wet yer tawkin' 'bout!" cried Willie for the third time in the castle.

"Silence, knave!" cried a man in a hooded cloak as he slammed his fist against a rather simple throne. "I will not tolerate lying from any simple boy like you!"

Willie grumbled angrily, thinking to himself how he would've preferred a day in Alexandra where somebody spat in his face over this kind of hospitality.

The boy had been brought to the castle of Nord, who stood in front of him now with the cloak hiding his face greatly. Willie had looked around and found that the castle was of very simple composition. He almost doubted the man had any authority at all, hence why he was being especially stubborn in trying to get through to the man in front of him. However, he was finding his efforts to be quite futile, the man in front of him seeming to dislike Willie's mere presence there. Willie glared at him from his one emerald eye as the guard on his left side pulled at the eyepatch from time to time, the eyepatch snapping back and causing pain to the young boy.

"Now, tell me again," said Nord slowly, the guards on either side holding Willie's arms fast. "What were you doing on that beach!

"I'm tellin' yeh, Governor, I was dere ferm de sea!" cried Willie.

"Will you stop giving me that lie?" cried Nord impatiently. "That is just silly! How could you come up from the ocean?"

"Me ship was all broken!" said Willie, the rushes of anger being greater as he struggled against his bonds.

"What are you talking about?" asked a very annoyed Nord. "Merchant ships have not passed through here in years!"

"But I'm tellin' ye de truv, Governor!" cried the Cockney boy again.

As he let out this cry, the boy jumped in the grips of the soldiers on either side of him, the guards standing fast and not showing a sign of fatigue as they held in place.

"The 'truv'." Nord laughed bitterly at this mockery of Willie. "You can't even speak correctly, boy! What makes you think I'll take you seriously?"

"Will yeh jus' shet up?" cried Willie, the tears of anger bursting from his eyes. "I've takin people spittin' at me loike deh ground, but dis is jus' stupid, Governor! Yeh let me go roight now!"

"Silence, fool!" cried Nord. "You were supposed to work in the mines, boy! What made you think you could escape, huh?"

The strange man then glared at the two guards on either side of Willie.

"Guards!" he snapped, the guards almost instantly standing at attention with the Cockney boy still being held fast to the two of them. "Take this impudent rascal down to the dungeons with that girl I found earlier! Maybe that will teach him a lesson in humility!"

The guards walked away with Willie still in their iron grip, Willie streaming curses at him as he was slowly dragged to a hidden staircase somewhere within the throne room of the castle.

* * *

Despite his overly loud protests, Willie was still dragged into the prisons, even with the struggle he was putting up. The darkness of the prison was intensely intense for the boy's eye, and when they stopped in front of a door and opened it he struggled harder than ever to break free.

However, his scrawny frame did not help much, and when the cell door opened he found himself thrown into the cell with ease. Before the Cockney boy could stand up, however, the loud slam of the cell door rang in his ears, and when he heard the turning of the key in the lock he found himself abrupty standing up and running to the cell door, banging on it with a fist as the guards walked away.

"'Ey!" cried Willie indignantly as his throat started to annoy him. "You git back 'ere dis second, or I ain't gonna let yeh see no light ef day ever agin, ye 'ear? 'Ey! Are ye even 'earin' me? Git back 'ere!"

"It's no use." said a female voice behind him, startling the Cockney boy greatly as he turned around to find a woman in his cell. "These blockheads don't listen to a damn thing you say."

Willie looked at the woman to find himself somewhat attracted to her. The young woman had very short orange hair that was tied up in two buns on either side of her head. Her eyes seemed to betray a cheery demeanor, but at this moment in time they were two aquamarine conveyors of anger and bitterness. Her outfit tended to suggest that she was a dancer, although Willie was not sure why dancers wore such revealing material to begin with.

"And 'o're yeh?" asked Willie with a frown on his face.

"I'm Lalum," said the young woman. "And you are...?"

"Willie's deh name, mu'um," replied the boy.

"Pleasure to meet you," said the young girl as she took Willie's hand and shook it, leaving the Cockney boy standing there. "I guess you escaped?"

"More ef dis crap?" shouted the Cockney boy angrily. "I've 'ad it wiv people tellin' me wet I've done! I git done killin' some demon ding and beatin' some... some lizerd, and I git tawked abut wiv 'ye've escarped verm somevin'! Wet's goin' on 'ere?"

"Whoah, calm down Willie!" cried Lalum. "Slow down for a second!"

"Bet mu'um, I jus' layin' on deh sea and--!" cried Willie angrily.

"Wait a minute," said Lalum with an interruptive jesture. "Did you wash up here?"

Willie looked at her from his one good eye, the emerald orb suddenly lighting up in jubilation as he looked up.

"Vinally, somebody 'o ain't never bad arund 'ere!" cried Willie. "Yep, I did."

"Great," said Lalum, frowning as she shook her head and walked away from Willie. "It's just like these people; imprison people and ask all the questions later. It's getting on my nerves!"

"Were am I?" asked Willie suddenly. "Wet's goin' on 'ere?"

"You're on the Western Isles," said Lalum quite simply as she turned to face him. "And these people are enslaving people until they die!"

"Oh, no!" cried Willie, a shocked expression taking form on his face. "Dat ain't never good!"

"You bet it isn't!" said Lalum, frowning as she suddenly noticed Willie's wording. "Wait, did you say that it's not good, or that it's good?"

"Wet?" asked Willie with a shrug. "If I dink somevin's good, I say it's good. If I don't dink somevin's never bad, I say it ain't never good."

"Oh," said Lalum, a small laugh being churned from her. "There is a rebel force that I was working with, but we're going nowhere! Oh, if only more help could arrive!"

"Well, mu'um, if yeh need over people, I kin send foire all over deh place," offered Willie, holding his hand open and producing a flame that burned on its own.

Lalum turned around to face the radiance, but then Willie released it into the bars, shaking his hand wildly as he blew on it to allieve the burning pain he felt.

"I guess you're good at magic, then?" asked Lalum. "Okay then, if we ever get out of this mess, you can join up with us!"

"Yeh mean 'wen', roight, mu'um?" asked the Cockney boy as he sat on the floor.

"Well, okay, 'when' we get out of this mess," said Lalum.

"Now dat's more loike it, mu'um!" replied Willie.

No sooner had the Cockney boy said this than the clattering of footsteps was heard down the room, the light seeping in from the doorway as a figure approached them.

"Aw, deng it!" cried Willie angrily. "Dis ain't never good!"

"Relax, sir," said a different voice altogether as Willie suddenly realized that the armor was not blue. "We are of the Lycian Alliance Army."

"De wet?" asked Willie, finding himself entrenched in a new kind of confusion.

"The Lycian Alliance Army?" asked Lalum loudly as Willie stood up. "What are you guys doing here?"

The prison door unlocked itself with a quick turn of the lock, and then the door opened with a creak. The man who had released them nodded quickly as Willie and Lalum found themselves perplexed at what to do.

"But...?" asked Lalum. "I thought you guys were working with--?"

"This lord was uncooperative, that is all," said the man.

"I need to speak to their leader, right away!" cried Lalum, raising her hand in the air.

"Well then, follow me," said the man and he walked out of the prisons.

"Wet de 'ell wes all dat abut?" asked Willie with a shrug.

"I don't know," said Lalum. "But rest assured, I'm talking with that man!"

And with this, Lalum walked out of the cell resolutely. Willie, after looking around his cell wondering what was going on, followed her very closely, the two of them walking out of the prisons.

* * *

As soon as they had walked out of the prisons, Willie saw a rather young man standing by the throne. The young man in question was a noble who looked to be no more than eighteen, maybe even seventeen, at the most. Red hair adorned the top of his head, and the gaze in his sapphire eyes seemed to beckon the Cockney boy closer as he and Lalam emerged from the dungeons. Standing next to him was the man in the armor they had encountered in the prisons, and the said knight was talking to the youth when they noticed the approach of the Cockney boy and his companion. Surrounding them in the large hall was a rather large army, but they seemed to be indifferent to the two people that had emerged from teh prisons as they went about the castle, doing their own thing for quite some time.

As Lalam and Willie approached, the youth nodded his head and extended his hands out in greeting.

"I understand you two were detained out there for... questionable reasons..." said the young man as Willie and Lalum walked forward suspiciously.

"Yeh bet dey did, Governor!" cried Willie angrily, flinging his arms out dramatically as if to emphasize his point. "I be mindin' me own bizness sleepin' wen dey go and go on and on and on about 'ow I'm runnin' away ferm somevin' I didn't even dink never existed! It was 'orrible, Governor!"

"Well, aren't we the overzealous one?" asked the lord with a nervous laugh. "So you two wanted to talk to me about something?"

"I did," said Lalum. "My name is Lalum, and I'm part of the rebel forces."

"You mean the forces protecting the people from the bandits?" asked the young lord.

"Bandits?" asked Willie quite suddenly, a frown appearing on his face. "Wet deh 'ell do dey 'ave teh be avraid ef 'bandits' fer if dese 'ere rulers are worse?"

"He's right, and the poor thing seems like he hasn't even seen the half of it!" added Lalum quite suddenly. "The lords are working with the bandits to rake up money and resources from these people!"

"What?" asked the young lord, quite shocked at this development. "Is that true?"

"The lords living here send villagers from their lands to the mines, where they work them and work them until they die!" said Lalum ardently.

"Wet?" cried Willie, still excited despite his massive confusion. "Dat's 'orrible! Dey cain't do novin' to dem peoples, dey cain't!"

"That's why we're fighting; we're defending these people from the cruel Etrurian court!" cried Lalum. "We were going to attack the mine at Mt. Ebrakhm, but a villager leaked the plans! I didn't think he'd tell. Now we've gotta go there before they all get killed!"

"All right, all right!" cried the young lord. "Calm down. We'll help you save those people being forced to work."

"Really?" cried a now suddenly excited Lalum as she jumped on top of Roy. "Thank you!"

"W-whoa!" cried the young lord as he stumbled back, Lalum clinging to him. "M-miss Lalum!"

"Eh!" cried Willie, getting the attention of the dancer and the lord. "I den't get novin'?"

"Well, what can we expect of you?" asked the red-haired lord as Lalum slowly let go of him.

"Are yeh kiddin' me?" roared Willie, finally fed up with the way he felt he was being treated before Lalum had a chance to speak on the Cockney boy's behalf. "I went roight vrough 'ell an' back fightin' baddies, killed seme dark god, 'elped people kill some evil ding takin' over one place, lose me friends on deh sea, went around too places, an' dis is wet Oi get? I cain't believe none ef dis!"

Willie's tantrum left the two people in front of him absolutely spellbound to the mysterious boy, the two of them staring at him with a great hint of confusion in their eyes. All motion around them seemed to stop as Willie glared all around the room, sending hateful glances at everybody in the room as his breath became heavy with anger. There was complete silence in the rather large room for quite some time, only to be broken by the sound of a footstep onto the floor.

Lalum's gaze went to the young lord, who looked back at her just as confused as she was. They then looked back at the Cockney boy, before Lalum opened her lips.

"What the hell were you just saying?" asked the dancer.

"Eh, vorget it!" cried Willie, waving his hand angrily. "Dis is wet I get fer bein' branded, I seppose."

"Branded?" asked the red-haired youth, suddenly dashing forward and grabbing Willie's wrist as he began to walk away. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't ye no, Governor?" asked Willie. "It's wet 'appens wen one ef dem 'laguz' types does it wiv one ef yeh people."

"Laguz?" asked the young lord, more confused than ever. "What are you talking about?"

"Eh, I'm assumin' dis place ain't got no laguz, dem?" asked Willie.

It was then that the realization hit the young lord and the dancer hard, and Willie finally turned around to face them.

"Wait, by place, do you mean 'continent'?" asked the red-haired youth as his eyes pored into Willie's.

"Yep, Governor," said Willie, sighing with relief.

"Huh?" asked the young lord. "This makes no sense. What are you talking about? The only continent I know of is this one."

"Den wet de 'ell is it?" asked Willie, waving his arms again. "Dat's all I wanna no!"

"Elibe," said the red-headed youth.

"Elibe?" asked the Cockney boy. "I see den."

"Good," said the lord. "At any rate, we still haven't introduced ourselves. I'm Lord Roy of Pherea."

The Cockney boy finally held his hand out in a formal greeting to the lord.

"And me name be Willie, Governor," he replied with a hearty handshake. "I 'ope I kin 'elp yeh, I kin!


	2. Chapter 2: We Ride Together

Okay, so now we know what happened to Willie! Now, we need to figure out where Kuranga is, at a location that is for me to know and you to find out. Away epic!

* * *

**_Willie has washed up onto the shores of the Western Isles on the continent of Elibe, where he is mistakenly taken into custody by governor Nord and busted right back out by lord Roy of Pherea and the Lycian Alliance army. As he is befriended by Roy and a dancer named Lalum, he finds out about the tense atmosphere the continent is embroiled in and more then ever wishes that Ike would appear._**

**_Prior to Roy's armies arriving in the Western Isles on favor of the nation of Etruria, the nation of Bern to the extreme eastern part of the continent laid siege to Lycia for an unknown reason. Thankfully, this brief invasion was ended with intervention from the famed Mage General of Etruria, tutor and friend of Roy. Afterwards, Roy was sent to the Western Isles to quell a bandit uprising._**

**_However, as Nord's actions towards Willie and Lalum's testimony readily report, the lords were working with the bandits to keep the population of the Western Isles subjugated. Shocked at this injustice, Roy decides to help the rebel forces with which Lalum is allied._**

**_Willie comes along with Roy's group as he knows he would be lost otherwise. While there, he meets several interesting people, and inwardly wishing that the rest of his friends were there..._**

Chapter 2: We Ride Together

"Okay, so let me get this straight; these 'laguz' you're talking about are this race of people that can shift into the forms of beasts?"

"Yep, Governor."

"And these people shift into beasts, birds, and dragons?"

"Yep."

"And if they... well... love one of us very much, then the branded are the offspring that result and the laguz lose their ability to shift."

"Ya got it, Governor!"

Willie jumped up in jubilation as Roy recited everything he had been told by the Cockney boy, his hands grazing the canvas of the tent as he jumped up.

The Cockney boy had been talking about the laguz into the night on prompting from Roy, who was still mildly confused about Willie's origins. Truth be told, the young lord was still very confused by Willie, but the fact that he was very outgoing told him that somehow, he was speaking the truth. The eyepatch still kind of freaked Roy out as he had no idea how a young man could lose an eye at such an age, but overall Willie was a great person to talk to.

"And they are called the branded because they have marks on their bodies?" asked Roy.

"Loike dis, Governor!" said Willie, rolling up the sleeve of his shirt so close to him that his brand was exposed to the Pherean lord.

Upon seeing this, the lord stood up and walked over to Willie, seeing the mark on the boy's shoulder and being amazed at the same time.

"This certainly isn't something you see every day," said Roy as he gazed at the mark. "I wonder what else it does..."

"Well, Governor, if yeh kin foind me a bird, I kin talk wiv it," replied Willie with a shrug.

"Can you?" asked the Pherean lord.

"Yep, Governor," said Willie. "I 'ad a bird fer a friend once."

"Really?" asked Roy. "I wonder how those conversations typically went."

"Dey were perty cool, Governor," said the Cockney boy.

"Yes," said Roy. "So you were travelling with your friends and you washed up on Elibe from another place?"

"Yep, Governor," said Willie.

"Well, I sure am interested on how you wound up from this 'Greljedo' all the way to Elibe," said Roy. "But that is a tale for another time."

"Wet, yer worried abut dis battle 'ere?" asked Willie.

"A boy your age shouldn't be up this late anyways," said Roy. "Now, let's get off to bed before Merlinus or Marcus starts yelling at us."

"Aw..." said a slightly dismayed Willie, his eye lighting up in want. "Bet I--"

"I know Willie," said Roy. "But you know how things are..."

"Well, okay den Governor," replied the slightly dissapointed Cockney boy as he walked to the exit of the tent. "G'nite, Governor..."

"Night," replied Roy succinctly.

The general then climbed into his sleeping bag as Willie left the tent and walked on in the night into his own tent.

* * *

The next day in battle, Willie found himself grabbing hold of a new fire tome that Roy had given him as a gift. He walked into the town warily, always on the lookout for the Etrurian soldiers that were supposedly forcing the natives of the Western Isles to work against their will. His emerald eyes sort of gave off an air of uncertainty as he stepped in, wondering whether Lalam was correct or not.

"Hey kid, are you okay there?" inquired a voice so suddenly that Willie jumped up startled at the question.

When he looked at the man in question, he saw a slightly familiar face from within the army. He had passed by this strange man with the scars all over his body sometime, but he hadn't really introduced himself since it was in passing. The young boy took note of the light blue hairs that rested on the man's head, the large sword he was holding glimmering in the daylight as Willie scrambled back up to his feet.

"Oh," sighed the boy, wiping his forehead with a stray hand as he sighed in relief. "Ye scared me dere, Governor."

"Did I?" asked the man as Willie wiped some grass from his pants. "I'm sorry about that. It's just that you looked a little nervous there."

"Well, Governor, ye no 'ow it's deh virst battle and yeh den't no novin' abut yer enemies?" asked the Cockney boy.

"I'd think they're all the same after a while, you know?" asked the man as they walked farther into town.

"Oh, yeh don't no novin' abut wet I went vrough, Governor," said Willie with a slight wave of his hand. "I 'ad teh foight de strangest dings, I did. Loike ladies made uf glass."

"In that case, I can kind of see why you're nervous," replied the man. If he felt any embarrasment, he did not show it at all. "I'm Dieck, by the way."

"Willie's deh name, Governor," said Willie with a nod.

"I assume you're the new kid that's hanging around with Roy a lot?" asked Dieck, looking at the boy with eyes, one of them covered by a scar.

"Yep, Governor," replied the Cockney boy. "'E be really noice teh me, Governor. Yeh no wet I mean?"

"I guess," said the mercenary. "I wonder; how did you learn magic?"

"Simple, Governor," replied Willie. "I kin tawk to birds, somebody saw dat I coud, I was used as... as..."

"An informant?" asked Dieck quickly. "That seems pretty lowly to me."

"Wet?" asked Willie with a shrug. "It was me birds dat did all deh work. I jes' said wet day said in our tawk."

"Our talk?" asked Dieck. "As in, our language?"

"Yep, Governor," said Willie. "And dat's 'ow I learned dis steff."

"All right," said Dieck.

"Wy'd yeh ask?" asked the Cockney boy as they peered beyond the fence to find a house where nobody was doing anything.

"No, I just thought it was wierd that a boy that speaks like you did would pick up that kind of stuff very easily," said the mercenary as the two of them walked into the town, a bunch of other army personnel behind them.

"Well, if yeh mus' no, Governor, it wasn't eesy at all," replied the Cockney boy. "In fact, I..."

Dieck suddenly heard the sounds of battle, and so raised his sword in the air, creeping around a house and looking to find a soldier harrassing a villager.

"Hold it," said Dieck. "It looks like we've run into the enemy."

Willie creeped by the same side of the house that Dieck did, and then he saw the villager being harrassed. It was this sight that gave Willie all the motivation he needed to start roasting soldiers.

"'Ey!" cried Willie, coming out from behind the house and raising his hand up to prepare a fireball. "You git offa 'er, ya 'ear?"

The soldier turned to Willie rather quickly, but before he could react quickly the boy unleashed his fireball at the soldier. The ball made its mark, causing the man in question to catch fire and to run around frantically. However, no sooner did this soldier run out of view when the villager gave a quick note of thanks before running away from a larger group of soldiers that had appeared.

"Well, you weren't kidding when you said you could burn things up," said Dieck as he approached, oversized sword in hand as the enemies drew closer. "But let's hope you can keep up with a larger group of enemies!"

"Kin do, Governor!" cried Willie, the rest of their troops preparing to attack the enemy soldiers.

And then, right when the soldiers came in, Willie launched a fireball that hit its mark, causing one assailant to fall off of his horse and onto the ground. As he prepared another fireball, the mercenary launched into the crowd, his sword swinging this way and that as he cut down almost every soldier in his path. The large blade seemed to slice through everything, Willie running ahead and casting a fireball at one of the soldiers that Dieck had missed.

However, Willie had apparently run too far ahead, for then he found himself in another part of the village, this part also being run down by soldiers. By the looks of things, Willie realized that he was the first one at that particular point in the village. Thinking this, Willie stood still, waiting for the Lycian Alliance army to catch up.

As he was standing there, the boy suddenly heard a chirp from far off. The fact that it was the most focused thing that Willie had really heard in a while must have met something, so when he looked in the direction of the chirp he suddenly found himself ducking down to dodge an arrow that had been sent his way.

"Whoa!" cried the Cockney boy as he rolled back onto his feet, stumbling a little as he quickly fired a fireball in the direction the arrow had come from.

The man responsible for this arrow rolled out of the way, and then Willie saw a rather young man in royal clothes that was wielding the bow. Before Willie had to dodge another arrow that was whizzing its way towards him, he took note of the young man's blonde hair and very fair face. In a way, the man almost seemed to remind him of a male version of Fiordiligi.

That was the only reason why he did not launch a fireball at the man again when he fired another arrow, instead preferring to run around in circles. This plan was very easily shot down when he suddenly felt a great pain in his leg. Looking down, he found an arrow to be stuck in his shin, and as he grasped his leg and cried out in pain he suddenly noticed that the man had come with four other archers that Willie had neglected to notice until then. Seeing them, he suddenly jumped down onto the ground as three more arrows were sent flying at him at the same time.

"Me goddess," muttered Willie as he jumped forward, the pain in his leg increasing with the leap of faith that he had pulled. "Wy'd 'e 'ave te look so much loike Viordilegi?"

Willie found himself stumbling forward, this action turning out for the better as he suddenly fell forward, dodging an arrow that just passed over his body, the arrow head barely grazing his back. He scrambled up, barely dodging yet another arrow as he finally got fed up with the barrage of arrows that was being sent at him.

The young boy finally unleashed another fireball at the young leader of the group, the other man dodging this fireball with ease. The Cockney boy used the momentary distraction warranted by the dodge to run up close to the man, and when they were literally right next to each other, the young boy grabbed a hold of the bow being used by the younger man. Willie glared angrily into the young man's eyes as he wrestled with him.

"Hey!" cried the outraged man. "Get your hands off of my bow this instant."

"Yeh git yer peeple offa me, ya 'ear?" cried Willie. "If ye'r gonna go a'ead and 'arm dese 'ere people, den I ain't gonna let ya do novin' to dem, ya 'ear?"

"Wait, harm the people?" asked the young man, concern suddenly etching itself into his amethyst eyes. "But we're here to ensure the Lycian Alliance Army doesn't harm anyone!"

"Wait, wet?" asked Willie, his grip loosening on the bow, the man retaking it with a rather sudden pull on his part. "But we ain't doin' novin to dem!"

"But that doesn't make any sense," replied the young man. "I was told the Alliance Army was allying themselves with bandits!"

"Dey lied to yeh, dey did!" cried Willie. "I den't no abut you, bet--"

"Brother Klein!" cried an incredibly feminine voice from pretty far away. "You're safe!"

"Clarine?" asked the man as the gaze of both people turned to a young woman on a horse. The young woman was also in regal regalia, and she looked almost exactly like the young man that Willie had been dodging the entire time. Roy was on the same horse that the lady was riding, and when he saw Willie's condition he jumped off the horse and ran to the Cockney boy.

"Willie, are you okay there?" asked Roy as he bent down to inspect the arrow.

"What, is this boy in the Alliance Army?" asked the young woman quickly.

"Yep, mu'um," replied Willie. "If yeh mus' no, I came wiv dem at... at..."

"On the path to Ebrakhm," continued Roy. "I'm surprised you hadn't noticed sooner, Clarine."

"Clarine, you're all right!" said the man, grabbing a hold of the woman who was apparently his sister.

"I'm sorry for not telling you about my departure," said the younger woman as she walked over to Willie.

"Clarine, I have one thing to ask of you," said the man named Klein as the woman brought the staff over to Willie's leg. "Is the Alliance Army working with bandits?"

"What?" cried Roy and Clarine at exactly the same time, Willie falling over. "No!"

"You would not believe the brand of Etrurian noble here!" added Clarine quickly. "They are malicious, these nobles here! It's embarrasing!"

"I see..." said Klein as he nodded. "Well, since my duty is to protect the villagers, I hereby join the Alliance Army."

"See, Governor?" cried Willie. "We ain't all dat bad!"

"And as for you," said Clarine, turning on Willie with a finger pointed at the boy. "You seem to completely lack finesse. First of all, your eyepatch. That has to go!"

"Wet're ye tawkin' abut?" cried a now violently repelled Willie. "Yeh cain't jes' take it out!"

"Clarine, we'll talk about this when we're not on the battlefield," replied the redheaded lord as he walked over to Klein. "Anyways, I am Roy, leader of the Lycian Alliance Army."

"Pleasure to meet you," said Klein, bowing graciously to the young Pherean general. "And this strange youth is?"

"Ah, deh name's Willie, Governor," replied the Cockney boy, grabbing Klein's hand and giving the archer a rather vigorous handshake. "Good teh meet yeh, Governor!"

"I will have to talk to this young boy later," said Clarine, a hand on her cheek as Willie noticed the slightest headshake.

"That's better," said Roy. "Now we've gotta go, or else the bandits will get to the villagers before we do."

"Then let's go!" said Klein, the young man running off towards the nearby castle, Clarine quickly jumping onto her horse before following him.

"'Ey!" cried Willie as he and Roy ran after the two Etrurian nobles. "Wait fer me!"

* * *

After what had seemed like a relatively short run and a bunch of bandits, Willie decided that he did not like what he was seeing at the castle, which was being guarded by the Bishop Oro at the time that Willie, Roy, Clarine, and Klein had turned up there. When they arrived, there was a rather stiff silence before them, and Willie actually shuddered at the bishop's seemingly malevolent glare that was being sent to them.

"You!" said Roy, being the first to speak as he brandished his sword. "What makes you think that it is right to put these people through such suffering?"

"How dare you question me!" cried the bishop, pointing a rather chunky figure at the group of four. "Questioning me is questioning God!"

"Ah, me goddess, more ef dese 'ere peeple?" asked Willie, shaking his head as he glared at the ground. "I dought I was done wiv 'em people..."

"What do you mean, "'em people'?" asked Oro almost mockingly, glaring at them with the most malevolent glare Willie had taken in his life. "I am not a fanatic, no, I am the voice of God!"

"You're mad," replied Klein, grabbing an arrow from behind him and nocking it onto the bow string itself.

"Yeh, you be worse dan dem peeples dat troyed teh bring 'im back, yeh are!" cried Willie.

"Willie, what are you talking about?" asked a slightly confused Clarine.

Before she could get her reply though, the group suddenly found themselves scattering after a light magic spell was cast by the Bishop Oro, Willie instantly jumping up and releasing a fireball at the man. Surprisingly, it made its mark, but the ball of fire did not seem to do any damage against the Etrurian bishop. However, before Willie could comment on this, Roy had leapt towards the slightly deranged bishop, swiping at him twice with his rapier to find that he somehow managed to dodge this. The bishop then sent Roy flying away with a blast of light magic.

Thankfully, Roy landed back on his feet, and when the bishop failed to dodge one of Klein's arrows Willie decided that it was as good a time as any to send another fireball at the bishop. This time, when the fireball connected, the bishop was kneeling down on the ground in fatigue, and when he tried to send a blast of light at Willie the Cockney boy dodged it expertly. Roy went back in for a rapier swipe, and even though he missed with his first strike, the second strike connected with his opponent, and the bishop let out a rather loud howl of pain as blood began to flow down from a huge gash in his chest.

The bishop was barely able to connect his next flash of light at Roy, but Roy managed to bear the brunt of the blow without being blown away. Willie saw this as a good opportunity to launch a fireball, and so he fired a fireball to hear a rather loud moan of pain as the fireball connected with its target. Willie smirked as the bishop knelt on the ground, clutching the gash on his chest as if nothing else existed, his eyes wide with fear.

"You...you heathen..." spat the bishop as he knelt on the ground, his eyes slowly becoming more dilated. "I...represent God... Gah...!"

And then the bishop fell over onto the ground, the last of his life force slowly fading away from him as the group of four looked on. When his body twitched after a few seconds, Willie shrugged lightly.

"Well, Governor, it serv'd 'im roight," said Willie quite plaintively.

"Quite the overly prideful man, wouldn't you say?" asked Clarine, her gaze directed towards her brother.

"Yes," said Klein. "Now, what--?"

"And as for you!" said Clarine, turning to Willie as abruptly as she could. "I am surprised to find you here. The presentation of your hair and body is commendable, although the clothes leave something to be desired. But your accent! My god, I've never heard such a strange, degenerate, and overly difficult to understand accent in all of Elibe! It's almost embarrasing to an army of this standing!"

"'Ey!" cried Willie, now quite offended at the comments Clarine was sending his way. "Ya don't no novin' abut wet yer tawkin' abut, ya 'ear, mu'um?"

"Excuse me!" piped up the Eturian lady, Willie hearing Klein sigh ever so lightly. "The one in the lower class is usually the one who quiets down right about now!"

"Ye dink I wanna do dat?" replied the Cockney boy in a manner similar to what Clarine had dealt to him. "I been tawkin' wiv royelty and all dem peeples, and dey didn't moind dis one bit! Ya 'ear?"

"Royalty?" asked Clarine with a chuckle as Klein started shaking his head. "With the way you speak? I doubt that!"

"Yeh kin dink wet yeh want!" said Willie, crossing his arms in front of him. "But dat's deh truv, roight dere!"

"Then what kind of royalty do you associate with?" asked the lady, mimicking Willie's gestures with a pouty face.

Upon seeing this, Willie found himself unable to reply since he was so offended by this lady's outburst. When this silence seemed to validate Clarine's point, she moved to reply when suddenly she felt Klein's hand on her shoulder, a stern look on his face.

"Clarine, that's enough," said Klein with a slight pat on the shoulder. "There shall be no changing a young boy into a nobleman unless he agrees to it, all right?"

There was a rather tense silence between the three of them, Roy looking on with a rather embarrased look on his face. Finally, Clarine let out a defeated sigh, shoulders drooping slightly.

"Yes, brother," she said simply.

"Dank yeh kindfully, Governor," said Willie with a respectful bow of his head to Klein.

"Don't mention it," replied the archer.

"All right, now that that's over with, are we ready to see what is in this place?" asked a rather annoyed Roy.

"Sure, Governor!" said Willie quickly, catching both Clarine and Klein off guard.

As Willie raced into the castle with Roy following shortly afterward, Clarine and Klein both looked at Willie. After a while, Klein finally let go of his bow, leaving his bow to rest on his back as he rubbed his face once with his hand.

"Well, there's a rather interesting fellow, that Willie," said Klein rather plainly. "The minute something else is brought up, he instantly goes along with it. Very interesting fellow."

"Still, his manner of speaking leaves something to be desired!" exclaimed Clarine. "And how dare he act like a brazen fool to royalty!"

"Clarine, calm down," said Klein as he walked away from the scene. "Something tells me that there is another factor that plays into his anger."

"Nonsense!" cried the noblewoman. "A brazen fool is a brazen fool! I will have to see to that, and there is nothing you can do to stop me!"

Klein was about to counter this when he suddenly somehow lost the will to do so; he knew his sister particularly well, and that when she was set to do something there was no changing her mind; after all, she had gone to Lycia and back in search of Klein, so the nobleman took that incident as a sign that Clarine was not easily swayed.

"Do what you want," replied Klein. "I do want to say that you should let him open up to you."

"Why?" asked Clarine.

"Because I still cannot shake the feeling that there is another factor that plays into that tantrum we just witnessed," replied the older nobleman. "Keep this in mind, and just maybe nothing unusually horrible will happen."

Klein ended the conversation on this note, as then he backed out of the castle and into the open air, Clarine standing where she was contemplating Klein's words of advice.

* * *

Willie had gone back outside on Roy's orders after he had commanded a few soldiers to go into the mines and see if there were any survivors there. The young Cockney boy had since been sitting in the lord's tent, thinking about what had happened with Clarine earlier. The encounter bothered the boy greatly, but he did not want to address it to himself for fear of ruining memories he once had.

As he sat playing with a few loose threads of the very same shirt that he had worn since he left Greljedo, he heard the tent flap open, and then Roy entered quickly.

"Oh, 'ey dere, Governor," said Willie with a beaming smile. "Wet's up?"

"Nothing much, Willie," replied the Lycian lord. "Listen, I've got something I want you to do."

"Sure," said the Cockney boy. "Wet's up?"

"All right," said Roy. "There is this man with the rebel forces who claims that there is quite a lot going on. I'm not sure you'd understand with your limited knowledge of this large conflict."

"Well, jus' 'cause I don't no novin' abut it don't mean yeh cain't say novin' abut it," replied Willie. "Try me."

"Very well, then," said Roy with a shrug. "There are these two people in the Etrurian government who supposedly allied themselves with Bern."

"Deh bad guys?" asked Willie. "I dink I get it."

"All right," said Roy as he smiled to himself. "Now, there was a coup d'etat there, and..."

"C... cup deetait?" asked Willie. "Wet in de 'ell is dat?"

"Eh, I'll just cut down to it," said Roy with a shrug. "We think that Bern's got dragons."

"Dregons?" asked Willie, his eyes perking up. "But 'ow, iffun dey all got killed vousand's ef yers ago?"

"I don't know," said the Lycian Lord. "But, there is a bard who knows of the location of a weapon that can help defeat those dragons."

"Eh, so yeh want me teh go wiv 'im, do yeh?" asked the Cockney boy.

There was a rather brief silence, the Lycian lord giving Willie an acknowledging look before shrugging.

"Well, you certainly picked up my intention pretty quickly," said Roy. "Yes, I do as a matter of fact."

"Okey den," said Willie. "Oi'll do it! Wen do yeh want me te leave?"

Roy blinked at Willie's zealousness, but he shrugged this feeling off as he looked at the war map that was laid out on the table that Willie was standing right next to.

"Okay, we're going to be going together a short distance," said Willie, pointing at the war map with his finger trailing along a certain portion of the Western Isles. "And when we reach a certain point, you and a few others will break from us and head towards the place where the sacred item is kept."

"All roight dem," replied the Cockney boy. "Dat's all?"

"That's all," replied Roy with a smile.

"Well, it don't seem dat bad," said Willie as he walked towards the tent entrance.

"And just so you know, Clarine is in the group as well," said Roy.

Willie stiffened visibly upon this, and when he turned to face the lord his face could only be described as shocked.

"Sh... She's comin' wiv me?" asked Willie, his voice sounding almost horrified at the prospect.

"Yes," said Roy. "I expect you two to make up while you are there, all right?"

"Uh... Yes, Governor," replied Willie, the horrified look on his face still showing.

The Cockney boy then exited the tent, his movements still somewhat tense as he exited the tent. When Willie had exited it entirely, Roy could have sworn he heard the sound of footsteps rapidly hitting the ground hard, the sounds fading away rather quickly as the Cockney boy was running away in the camp.


	3. Chapter 3: Great Expectations

And, fun stuff commences. I've been really busy as of late, so sorry about the delay, folks. Away next chapter!

* * *

**_After they take over the mine at Ebrakham, Roy makes his way to the capitol of the Western Isles._**

**_While Roy is doing this, he sends Willie and a bard known as Elphin to a caves in which a weapon that is strong against dragons is found. Willie finds himself at unease as he finds that Clarine is among those who comes with him, along with a host of other people he does not know._**

**_However, he picks himself up, and seeing this cave as an opportunity to prove himself, walks into the heat of danger with his small force behind him._**

Chapter 3: Great Expectations

Willie was not looking forward to having to deal with Clarine at all. However, the group had been relatively silent when they found the rock face that led into the mountain, so he had a feeling she would not bring it up at that particular time.

As soon as they saw the hole in the rock, Willie looked to a rather solemn man who was standing by him, a harp in his arm and long blonde hair flowing down the bard's blue robes.

"So, Elvin," said Willie. "Is it 'ere?"

"Yes," replied the bard known as Elphin, eyes cast into the depths of the cave.

"Well, okey den," said Willie. "Wet're we waitin' fer?"

The small force Willie had taken with him all peered into the hole in the mountain face, their various eyes peering into the overly dark cave as a strange sense of apprehension overtaking them. Clarine, who broke off from the main group, moved over to Elphin and Willie.

"This is it?" asked Clarine. "There is nothing else we might want to know?"

"There are traps scattered throughout the cave," replied the bard quietly. "Be wary of the walls, lest a cloud comes out and tries to poison you."

"Wet is dis?" asked Willie, now just a little confused. "Poyson out ef dem walls? But were deh we see it, Governor?"

"I can't tell you for sure," replied Elphin. "Maybe your fire can illuminate the problem."

"Well den, Oi'll see wet I kin do wiv dat, Governor," said Willie, walking over to the hole in the ground.

Quite quickly, the Branded individual walked over the hole and held his hand out into it. He very quickly summoned a small fireball that illuminated the inside of the cave just enough for them to see where they were going.

"Well, if you ask me it looks perfectly harmless," said Clarine.

"Same 'ere, mu'um," said Willie as he stepped into the hole. "Kem on, ever'one!"

And as Willie led the way with his ball of light, the rest of his group followed, Elphin quickly approaching the front of the group so he could guide Willie better.

No sooner did they enter the caves did they run into trouble when Willie seemed to notice something else in the cave. That was, if the figure approaching them was giving any signs to Willie, it was that somebody had arrived at this cave first. That, or the guardians were not too happy with their presence.

Without wasting a second, Willie expanded the fireball he had been holding in front of his palm up until that point, and then he released it, the ball of flame flying towards what was now visible to be a man in bandit's clothes. Before the fireball could connect, Willie had quickly conjured up a second fireball, and by its light he had noticed that those around him had brandished their weapons. A scream of pain echoed off of the walls soon afterwards, however, and before anybody could say anything else the man Willie had targeted was seen running around in circles as he burned to death.

"Bandits!" cried a rather surprised Elphin. "They must be all over this cave!"

"Well, den, wet're we waitin' fer, Governor?" asked Willie. "Let's go!"

Before anybody could protest, the Cockney boy ran forward, entering the cave and nearly leaving everybody else in his dust.

"Oh, that fool!" The young boy had barely registered Clarine's exclamation before he saw more bandits enter his midst.

Without hesitating, he shot the fireball he had been using as lighting at one of the bandits, scorcing him and sending him running around. Almost as soon as the man was set on fire the boy swore he could have heard the faint traces of harp strings echoing off of the walls. Shortly afterwards, he noticed a rather energetic swordsman with robes the color of blood flying past Willie. Before the boy could respond, he found the swordsman slashing his sword into another bandit immediately in front of Willie. The stranger paused after the sword stroke cut through the enemy, a shower of blood erupting from the bandit's torso as Willie stared in wonder.

"And 'o're yeh?" asked Willie, suddenly quite curious as he conjured another fireball for lighting.

The man was, at first, quite silent and almost still such that it was quite unnerving for Willie to look at him. The somewhat long brown hair that fell down to his shoulders added to the enigma that was the man standing before him, and it creeped Willie out quite a bit.

"'E-ello?" asked Willie once again. "I asked yeh a question, Governor!"

"... Who said I had to answer it?" asked the strange man as Willie ventured forth.

"Rutger, there is no need to be so blatantly uncouth," said Clarine as she ran up to them quickly. "Are either of you hurt."

"No, mu'um," said Willie. "Did yeh send 'im after me, too?"

"W-what?" asked the slightly offended Etrurian noble. "Of course not! And that is not how a proper man greets a lady!"

"..." The man in the red cloak stood silently by the side.

"Wetever, mu'um, we've got bendits teh take care ef, yeh no?" asked Willie. "Yeh don't get around tawkin' down to people woile dere are peeple we need to fight."

"Talking down?" asked Clarine, now somewhat more offended at the uncouth youth than before. "How dare you suggest such a thing! I--"

"This is no time for an argument," said the strange man in the cloak, his blade swishing quietly in the dark. "Not while there are still people to kill."

And with this, the mysterious man vanished into the darkness, Willie and Clarine both looking after him. While the noblewoman bore a look of concern on her face, the street boy bore a look of great confusion.

"And 'o is 'e, anyway?" asked Willie.

"His name would be Rutger," replied Clarine with a shrug. "Anyways, I shall ask you to guard me now!"

"W-wet?" asked Willie, taken aback with surprise. "Wet're you sayin' mu'um?"

"Well, seeing as how Rutger there ran off, the others went off in another direction, and you're the only one here, I command you to defend me!" cried the woman.

"Well den, 'ere's wet I say teh yeh!" replied Willie, finally having had enough of this behavior and pointing a threatening finger in her face. "If yeh dink yer so great, wy den't yeh devend yerself, eh?"

This question left Clarine almost completely speechless, stutters coming out of her mouth that failed to form into coherent words. After seeng this for a few seconds, Willie nodded.

"Dere yeh go," he replied. "I 'ope yeh don't moind me leavin' yeh 'ere."

And with this, Willie ran in the direction that Rutger ran off in, Clarine just coming to her senses right then and there.

"Hey!" cried the girl from the house of Reglay. "You come back here this instant!"

Willie bore no heed to her protests; he had quite frankly had enough of this behavior, and so he had no qualms about leaving her in his dust as he ran into a bend that seemed to nudge him along in a particular direction.

* * *

A few minutes later, Willie had arrived at an altar, where, strangely enough, Clarine, Rutger, and Elphin were the only people there. Quite surprised and ever so slightly annoyed at this, he approached them.

"And were's everbody else?" asked Willie.

"Holding those bandits off!" said Clarine. "Thanks to you running away from me, some bandits managed to pounce on me! This is not how a lady is to be treated!"

"All roight, calm down!" said Willie. "Kin we jes' get dis over wiv?"

"Of course," said Elphin, walking to the altar.

However, before the mysterious bard could move, Rutger sensed movement behind the altar. Without any second thoughts, the man jumped onto Elphin, tackling him to the ground and nearly destroying his harp just as a large man with a steel axe in his clutches jumped out, his axe hitting the ground in front of him.

"More ef dese guys?" cried Willie, igniting a fireball in his palm. "I cain't believe none ef dis!"

"Oh?" asked the bandit. "And if ya think yer gettin' away with this axe here, too bad, because I got dibs!"

Without saying another word, Willie sent the fireball at the bandit; however, the bandit jumped to the side, Clarine nearly hit with an axe blow that lodged itself in the earth. Before the ruffian could get another thing out of the noblewoman, he quickly spun around to block a sword blow from Rutger. This did not deter the swordsman in the slightest, as then the blade retreated with a speed that probably was not attainable by most swordsmen as it quickly tore into the axeman's arm. The bandit growled angrily at the swordsman as he jumped back.

"That was a warning," said Rutger simply.

Before he could continue, however, the bandit charged forward, Rutger sensing this and very quickly dodging to the side. At this opportunity, Willie fired a Fireball that just nicked the man's pants. The contact was not enough to start a fire, however, and after another growl the Branded individual found the bandit running towards him. Quickly, he jumped back just as another axe slash attempted to kill the boy. Willie managed to kick the man in the chest to put some distance between them, only to find the bandit grabbing hold of Willie's foot and using that to suddenly trow the unlucky boy towards the altar. The Cockney boy crashed against the altar, hitting his head on the edge of it and blacking out temporarily.

Soon, however, he felt a strange kind of glow wash over him, and shortly afterwards he awoke, still sitting on the altar with Clarine holding a staff over his body. As he felt the familiar energy of healing magic flow through his body, his eyes wandered over to where the bandit had been. However, all he saw was the bandit's legs, his torso somewhere else with Rutger hovering over the legs that were separated from the brigand's body.

"Are you all right?"

Clarine's question snapped Willie out of his thoughts, and then he looked up to her.

"I'm foine, dank yeh," said the Cockney boy, standing up.

"Good to hear," said Elphin, who was in the process of retuning his harp strings from the Rutger-induced fall he had taken. "Now, we have ownership of the axe."

"Good, Governor!" said Willie. "Let's take it and be outa 'ere!"

"As you wish," said Elphin quietly, removing the axe that stood on the altar.

"Oh, don't yeh go on wiv dat!" said a now somewhat perturbed Willie. "I den't do well wiv all det royal steff."

"Explains why you can't treat a lady right," murmured Clarine under her breath.

However, Clarine's murmuring did not escape Willie's ears, and then he growled, turning on Clarine with a finger pointed in her face.

"Don't yeh say novin' abut wet I kin and cain't do, ya 'ear, woman?" cried the boy, his yell echoing on the cave walls to drive the point in.

"But this is not right!" exclaimed Clarine. "All I want for you is to--"

And then, a sharp smack created a great noise in the area, the sound bouncing off of the walls, ceiling, and floor. Clarine brought a hand up to her face, feeling the brutal sting of the hand mark that Willie had left there. The boy by this time had had enough of Clarine's antics, and from the look on his eyes one would have thought he was ready to snap and go absolutely psycho on the individual unlucky enough to be in his presence.

"I don't care novin' abut 'ow teh treat yeh, yeh 'ear?" cried Willie, his finger still pointed at her face as he walked back. "Yeh ain't deh queen ef no world! Stop tellin' me wet teh do, yeh 'ear?"

"But, I--"

"And don't yeh give me novin' abut 'ow yeh dink yer so big!" interrupted the boy, who was screaming by this point. "Oi've seen many peeple dat troied teh do 'owible stuff! And yer werse dan any ef dem fer bein' so big abut yerself! Dere ain't novin' I 'ate more dan a gal 'o dinks dat she's so good she kin tell ever'body wet teh do!"

"B... but..." said the noblewoman, finding herself speechless at this outburst.

"Jes git outa 'ere," said Willie, walking away from the altar, his one eye shining in a strange kind of anger.

He cared not that his logic made no sense, as he stormed the rest of the way out of the caves, almost leaving the group behind if not for the fact that Elphin made sure they all caught up to him. As he was moving along, he could have sworn he heard somebody crying. He gave this no heed, instead preferring to march forward while keeping what little dignity he had.

And in this mindset, Willie marched back to the camp of the Lycian Alliance Army.

* * *

Roy was one of the first people to notice the Cockney boy and his crew when they returned to the camp.

"Ah, Willie!" said Roy jovially. "How did it--?"

"Yer never pairin' me wiv dat 'ussy Clarine agin, yeh 'ear me?" threatened Willie. "Overwise I'll kill yeh were yeh stand!"

The angry boy then walked away, leaving a speechless lord standing there as he heard footsteps next to him.

"That didn't go so well, did it?" asked the voice of Klein, noticing the somewhat concerned expression on his face.

Klein's question remained unanswered, for then Clarine herself walked forward, the smack mark having faded so that it was now almost imperceptible. The two men then turned their attentions to the young woman.

"Clarine, what did you do?" asked Klein.

"I don't know," said the girl, who the two of them just noticed the tear stains on Clarine's cheek. "I wanted him to treat me like a lady, and--"

"You forced him into it?" asked Roy, shaking his head. "Willie's a very independent soul. I'm pretty sure he doesn't like it when people try to push him around, especially when they bring up something he might see as a fault that other people would notice."

"And how would you know that?" asked Clarine.

"You should've seen the way he reacted at me when I assumed he knew what was going on," replied the Lycian noble.

"Still, there must be something else about this if he's threatening you with death," said Klein.

"I'll go talk to him when we get off of these islands," said Roy.

"Getting off of them?" asked the Etrurian noblewoman. "What do you mean?"

"There's been a coup in Etruria," stated Klein. "It waslead by advisor Roartz and his underling, Acard."

"W-what?" asked a now shocked Clarine. "Then that means..."

"Yes," said Roy. "I intended to leave the Western Isles as soon as you came back. There's no time to lose. Get everybody to pack their tents. We need to make sure this does not spiral out of control."

Wordlessly, the three nobles went around camp, and by the time the sun had set that night everybody had packed their tents and were already heading for the way out of the isles.


	4. Chapter 4: Meeting a Sparrow

So yeah, the last chapter was full of stuff to yell about. No worries; it starts to resolve itself at around this point. You'll see what I mean.

For now, here's the chapter.

* * *

**_Willie retrieved the thunder axe Armads from its resting place in the Western Isles. After his, he rejoins Roy's army to find that they need to leave the Western Isles._**

**_The Lycian Alliance army arrives in Etruria somewhat shortly afterwards. By then, a coup has taken full force of Etruria. However, an added twist to this tale has been placed on Roy's plate; Bern is assisting Roartz in taking the Etrurian throne. Tensions come to a head when Cecilia, the Magic General of Etruria, leads a loyalist force against Bern's forces and when the other two royal generals, Percival and Douglass, are forced to fight for Roartz when he threatens them with the king's life. However, Cecilia is slowly fighting a losing battle, eventually being cornered in a castle at the Misul Peninsula._**

**_Roy realizes that he needs to act quickly, and so he rushes to Cecilia's location as quickly as possible. Willie follows Roy's every move, hoping to be of some service to the lord of Lycia..._**

Chapter 4: Face-off at Misul

Roy charged onto a field, Willie trailing along behind him soon afterwards as he and his army approached one of the two bridges that went across the body of water that bordered the Misul peninsula.

"There it is," said Roy nervously, his eyes scanning the immediate area to find it crawling with Bern's troops. "I hope we're not too late..."

"I den't dink we are, Governor," said Willie, pointing his finger at the vicinity. "Look it dem! Dey're goin' avter det place dere!"

Willie's finger darted at a castle that was visible quite a distance aways over the bridge they were next to. Seeing this, Roy grew concerned as he saw the soldiers in red armor rush to the castle.

"This can't be good," said Roy. "We're hopefully not too late, but they'll be outrun at this rate."

"Well den, let's move, Governor!" cried Willie.

Before Roy had even given the order to charge, the boy sent a fireball flying at the nearest soldier. His screams of death alerted other solders close to him that there was a friend in need. Seeing this, they rushed towards Roy's army.

"Charge!" cried the Lycian general before the army of Bern could get too far ahead of the Lycian Alliance.

With this, the army strode forth, Willie launching fireballs into the crowd as the rest of the army quickly caught on and began to swarm the Alliance army. Somehow, Roy's army made its way through the line very quickly, and in a few minutes Roy and Willie were both leading a charge on the closer of the two bridges. Inexplicably, a smaller force had broken away to storm the bridge that was farther away from their location. Roy hacked away at the enemies with his rapier, expertly dodging many things as he cut his way through the lines. Willie was next to him the entire time, launching fireballs into the crowd at will.

As they were working their way through the soldiers, however, Willie suddenly noticed a wyvern flying towards Roy with two passengers on its back. Seeing this as a threat, Willie had prepared to fire a fireball at them. By this time, the soldiers around Roy had taken care of almost everybody on the field, and Roy looked up to see the wyvern as well. However, he saw that it was approaching in a way that indicated some form of relative quiet.

"Wait," said Roy, holding his hand out to Willie. "Don't fire. I think that person wants to talk with us."

"Wy, dough?" asked the Cockney boy.

"I am not your enemy!" cried the female rider of the wyvern.

Soon afterwards, the dragonling landed on the bridge, a woman with red hair stepping off. Willie was very temporarily blinded by the glint of light from her red armor, but he pulled himself together, ready to fire a fireball at a moments notice. There was a period of relative silence amongst the group, everybody looking at her strangely. Then...

"Are you General Roy?" asked the woman.

"Yes," said the Lycian lord.

"Roy!"

With this, the second passenger on the wyvern stepped off. Willie saw a rather beautiful woman with long blonde tresses that fell down to her shoulders. She looked over to Roy rather quickly with somewhat sad blue eyes that lightened up upon seeing him. She ran over to the Lycian lord quickly, her long crimson dress flowing behind her as she ran.

"Guinevere!?" asked a slightly confused Roy right before the woman ran straight into the Lycian lord with her arms around his torso very quickly. "You were safe!"

"Eh?" cried a surprised Willie. "'O's dis lady over 'ere?"

This question from the branded boy confused both of the newcomers, and as the army slowly noticed the reinforcements approaching them they went ahead, leaving the four of them alone. The blonde woman's eyes seemed to be wrought with fright over the Cockney boy, her companion's lance quite quickly at the ready.

"It's okay, put the lance down," said Roy, the woman in red armor doing as she was told. "Guinevere, this is Willie. We ran into him in the Western Isles. Willie, this is Guinevere of Bern."

"Oh, so he is in your army then?" asked the woman apparently named Guinevere, stepping towards the boy with a new kind of curiosity taking over her.

"Yup!" said Willie, standing up straight and holding his hand out to the princess of Bern. "Good teh meet yeh, mu'um!"

"The pleasure is all mine," said the woman, taking Willie's hand and gingerly shaking it.

"How did you get out of there anyway?" asked Roy quickly.

"Oh!" said Guinevere, gesturing towards the woman in red. "I escaped with her assistance."

"I am Miledy, dear sir," said the red-haired woman with a respectful bow of her head.

"And what of Cecilia?" asked the red-headed male quickly. "Is she all right?"

"I do not know..." said the princess. "I was separated from her when she went to defend the castle from the Revolutionaries. But chances are we might be too late..."

"No..." said Roy, looking to the castle in the distance.

Suddenly, the chirps of a sparrow were audible to Willie's ears, and he abruptly turned out to face the water, seeing a rather small sparrow flying to him. The thing landed on the bridge and started chirping immediately, Willie suddenly leaning in close to hear it above the sounds of battle nearby.

"Wet?" asked the boy, brushing some stray strands of brown hair out of his face. "Whad're tawkin' abut, she's foine?"

The sparrow continued chirping frantically, Willie nodding every so often in confirmation. The three bystanders looked at each other, bewildered expressions on their faces as the boy listened intently to the sparrow.

"What is this all about?" asked a rather confused Guinevere.

"He said he could talk to birds," replied Roy, who was just as surprised as everybody else. "I didn't think he meant it!"

"Eh?" asked Willie suddenly, bringing this short discussion to a halt. "So we gotta move over dere?"

The sparrow trilled shrilly, Willie glancing towards the castle and nodding.

"Okey den," said the Cockney boy. "Tell dem we'll be roight over dere, an' dat we'll get dem outa dere wen we do get dere, okey, Governor?"

The sparrow chirped quite flatly at this, almost as if it was angry.

In reply, Willie threw his arms around in a gesture of anger. "Dis ain't no toime fer me teh git dat yer a mu'um!" he cried. "Git over dere an' tell dem!"

The sparrow chirped once, and in a flash it had fluttered back into the air, the bird flying towards the castle as quickly as its little wings could carry it. Willie turned to the other three people to find them all staring at him strangely. Upon seeing this, his eyes narrowed so that emerald pierced into two sets of sapphires and another set of rubies, and the effect was that the boy was somewhat peeved.

"Wet did Oi do dis time, eh?" asked Willie.

"You just talked with that bird..." said the normally calm Miledy somewhat exhasperatedly.

"Eh, we don't 'ave no toime teh dink abut dat," said Willie with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Dis 'Cesilla', or 'owever yeh say it, be all roight, bet we best 'urry anyways."

"Oh, good," said Roy as Willie ran forward without another word. "Guinevere, you stay with Miledy. We've gotta rescue Cecilia!"

The woman nodded as the two of them boarded the wyvern and flew out in the direction that Willie had run off to. Before Roy moved on, he looked to the castle ahead, his gaze dead set on the white towers that protruded on the landscape.

"Cecilia, please be okay..." said Roy to himself.

He then ran after both Miledy and Willie, and then he joined the fray alongside his soldiers as they made their way to the Misul peninsula as quickly as possible.

* * *

Roy's army had moved rather quickly, such that by the time the bird that Willie had talked to had returned the group had already conquered the castle at Misul.

It had been a rather long battle; Willie shuddered from the feeling of having to fight the dragon that had stood in their way. However, he found that his magic was able to combat the beast quite effectively, and so he had gone about trying to defeat the dragon that way. Everybody else had quite relied on him to do this as well, as the dragon was not wasting any time trying to hit everybody around it. The Cockney boy had defeated the dragon, however, so from there everything had gone by rather smoothly. And now, Roy and Willie were both running down the hallway, Guinevere right behind them as a guard led them to the dungeons. Roy's eyes were squeezed shut, the praying for Cecilia's safety rising in his mind as Willie and Guinevere both followed the guard intently.

Finally, they came upon a door in the rather large hallway they had been running down, and the guard descended a set of stairways. Willie, Roy, and Guinevere followed in hot pursuit, the guard reaching the bottom of the staircase first and taking off from there. A few seconds later when Willie hit the bottom of the staircase, the clatter of keys was heard, and then the sound of a door opening on rusted hinges sounded throughout the dungeon. The three of them slowed to a run, and then they saw the guard standing by an open cell door, Roy being the first to peer into the cell.

Inside were two women that had been looking up when the guard came by to open the door. One was adorned in royal clothing that was slightly torn underneath the armor, her green hair slightly matted from being in the cell for a few hours. The other woman was quite demure in character even on a glance, and she regarded the three of them with somewhat distant amethysts for eyes.

"Cecilia!" cried Roy upon laying eyes on the green-haired woman. "You're all right!"

"Roy..." said the general somewhat softly. "I have made a fool out of myself in front of you."

"And it's yer vult dat some blighter in yer royalty went roight an' troied teh take over?" asked Willie, winking at the woman as she glanced perturbedly at the Cockney boy.

"Ah, it is you..." said the strange woman, pulling back at her purple hair so that it fell behind her shoulder.

Before Willie could reply to this, a click sounded within the cell. And then, the sparrow that Willie had seen earlier flew out of the bars that substituted for a window and flew to Willie.

"'Ey, dere yeh are!" cried Willie. "Wet're you doin' 'ere?"

The sparrow trilled softly, and a series of chirps punctuated its sentence as Willie nodded.

"Well, dat be good, mu'um!" said the boy with a nod.

"He's the one who spoke with the bird?" asked the woman apparently named Cecilia.

"Yes," said Guinevere, coming out from the shadows. "It is great to see you are all right, my lady."

"Please, just 'Cecilia' will do," replied the general as she stood up. "This girl here treated my wounds."

"Ah," said Roy, nodding to the demure woman who still sat on the plank of wood one would have to call a chair. "And you are...?"

"Sophia," replied the girl softly. "I am a priestess.... of Arcadia...."

"Arcadia?" asked Willie. "Wet's dat?"

"It is a village... in the Nabata desert," said Sophia calmly as she stood up. "We tried to stay hidden... but Bern... found us..."

"And then they attacked?" asked Roy.

Sophia nodded shyly in affirmation.

"But why would they attack a hidden village?" asked Guinevere.

"Perhaps they found... out about the dragons..."

"Dregons?" cried Willie, thoughts of finding Kuranga flashing through his mind incredibly quickly. "Yeh didn't 'appen teh no nobody by deh name ef Keranga, did yeh?"

"Kuranga?" asked Sophia, looking to Willie. "I... I do..."

"Ah, me goddess!" cried Willie, grasping Sophia's arms roughly. "Were is 'e, mu'um? Were is 'e?"

"Ah, you must... be Willie," said Sophia. "Kuranga should be in Arcadia... with the rest of my people..."

"Ah, me goddess!" cried the rather excited boy. He let go of Sophia and jumped as high as he was able to in the cell before turning to her. "Dat be great, mu'um!"

"Kuranga?" asked Guinevere suddenly, jolting Willie out of his phase of complete joy. "How do you know what a dragon is?"

"It's an incredibly long story," said Roy. "For now, I'll just let you go to him so he can tell you."

"But our village... may be in danger," said Sophia, her voice cutting the idle conversation for a short while. "Please... help me save my village..."

"Well, mu'um, it be on'y fair for 'elpin' us out 'ere wiv Cecilia," said Willie loudly. "Roight, Governor?"

"True," said Roy before anybody else could say anything. "All right. We'll help you save your village."

"Thank you..." said Sophia softly.

"All right," said Cecilia. "We have no further business here, so why don't we head on over to this Arcadia place?"

"Of course," said Roy.

With this, the small group walked towards the end of the dungeons, the sparrow perching on Willie's shoulder and chirping quite merrily as they all walked back out of the corridor and into the castle proper.

* * *

Willie was alone that night; the group had made progress away from the Misul peninsual towards the Nabata desert. The bird ad Willie had managed to get along quite well during this time, and at that moment in time Willie found himself conversing with the sparrow, his vision able to make out the somewhat brown plumage on its body. He had found out that the bird's name was Emma, and that she had been found by Sophia a few days earlier within their cell. The bird had been nursed back to health by the mysetious girl, and by the time the bird was fully healed was when Bern took over the Misul peninsula.

"Ah, I git it now, mu'um," said Willie as soon as the bird stopped relating its story to the boy. "So yeh were wiv' dis Sovia girl..."

The sparrow chirped in the affirmative, and Willie nodded at this.

"I see den," he said simply, before he heard his tent flap opening.

"Hey there, Willie," said the voice of Dieck. Willie looked up to find the Ellibean mercenary squatting at the tent entrance.

"Oh, 'ello, Governor!" said the branded boy cheerfully. "'Ow are yeh today?"

"I'm fine," replied the man as he eased his way into the tent. It was then he noticed the bird sitting on Willie's hand as it let off a chirp.

Curious, Dieck looked over to the bird. "And what might this be?" he asked.

"Oh, dis be Emma," said Willie, holding his hand up so the sparrow was in Dieck's line of sight. "Say 'ello, mu'um!"

The bird chirped quite merrily, Dieck throwing a confused look at the animal as Willie turned to face it. The bird then trilled strangely.

"Well, mu'um, I den't no iffun 'e can understand yeh..." said Willie.

"Wait, you can talk to the thing?" asked Dieck, sudenly taking the hint.

"Yep, Governor," said Willie, a glance towards Dieck being all he got. "Wy d'ye ask?"

"I was just confused is all," said Dieck. "How do you do it?"

"Well, Governor, iffun yeh must no, I was born wiv it," said Willie. "I used ta 'ave dis over bird for a vriend."

"Ah, so they come to you and you become friends," said the mercenary, leaning in towards the Cockney boy a little bit. "I wonder how you can decipher all of those bird calls and stuff..."

"It jes' comes teh me, Governor," replied Willie with a shrug. "I cain't teach yeh novin'."

"Shame," said Dieck. "How are you holding up here?"

"Wy d'yeh ask?" asked the boy, his facial expression taking on a tone of curiosity.

"Well, because I'm worried about what you said the other day on the Western Isles," said Dieck. "I mean, how're you doing in the face of all of this rapid change you're going through."

"Eh, it culd be divern't, I guess," said Willie with a shrug. "Bet I'm okay."

"Good to hear," said Dieck. "So, you mind telling me about what went on before you came here to Elibe?"

Willie glanced nervously around the tent, his eye seeming to fall on Dieck's hair when he finally stopped fidgeting around nervously. "Well, Governor, it be a relly long story..."

"I can sit through it," replied the mercenary, sitting down on the floor as Emma chirped several times.

"Well, all roight," said Willie. "Me story starts somevin' loike dis..."

And Willie proceeded to relate his narrative to the mercenary, relating how he had been picked up from the streets of Alexandra and how he had worked his way over to Elibe in his journeys with Ike. As he related his narrative,he suddenly realizedhow far he had gone from being a simple boy on the streets to being an adventurer who had a lot of friends.

And as he came upon this realization, he felt a smile creep across his face.


	5. Chapter 5: The Flames of Athos

All right! Now let's get moving on with the plot threads that we've gotten ourselves into so far! So Willie has a new sparrow called Emma, and he's getting along just fine. Let's hope we run into more stuff, like running into Kuranga!

Away chapter!

* * *

**_Roy made it to the Misul Peninsula in time to rescue Cecilia from death. However, a new threat has arisen in the village of Arcadia, located in the Nabata desert, and so Roy's army heads over there. Willie is especially looking forward to this visit, as he hopes that it will be where he will finally run into Kuranga._**

**_However, just outside of the village, the army come across a sandstorm that tries to blow them off course. With Sophia as their guide, the group moves into the sandstorm carefully..._**

Chapter 5: The Flames of Athos

"Boy, mu'um, yeh told us abut sand, but I didn't dink none ef it would go blowin' around deh place!"

"Bear with it for just... a little longer... We are close now..."

Sophia said this with Willie and Roy behind her. Willie was shielding his eye and eyepatch from the sand that was sent flying every which way. Emma was hiding safely in Willie's shirt, so the boy had less things to complain about. However, the sand that kept biting at Willie was beginning to prove somewhat troublesome for him. Thankfully, he found he was able to move rather well, which was something that the others behind him could not exactly say for themselves. In the sand one was able to see a faint outline of a wall, so they knew they were close.

However, Willie was beginning to grow a little impatient, if his ramblings were signifying anything.

"Well, mu'um, I den't dink we kin wait mech longer for deh rest ef 'em, dontcha dink?" he asked as they moved along.

"But then if Bern's there, what'll we do about you?" asked Roy.

"Oh, don't yeh worry none, Governor," replied Willie as they advanced in the sand. "I kin 'andle meself, I kin."

"You do not understand... this enemy... they are much more powerful... than you care to believe," said Sophia lightly so that her voice was almost inaudible in the wind that howled around them.

"If it be Keranga, I kin tawk wiv 'im no probem, mu'um," he replied. "I jes' 'ad enov ef dis place!"

"Well, I guess your ramblings aren't entirely founded then," said Roy. "Notice anything."

Willie suddenly lifted his arm from in front of his face, and suddenly he noticed that the feeling he had been feeling in the past half a minute was a lingering feeling, as he found himself within what seemed to be the center of a huge sand tornado that swirled around walls typically found in a desert home. Above the walls the top of a rather simple temple could be seen.

"Oh!" said Willie as Emma flew out from within his shirt. "Well den. Let's see wet we 'ave 'ere!"

The Cockney boy walked towards the city gates.

"Wait," said Sophia, and Willie stopped where he was, turning to the mysterious girl. "I sense... a great evil inside... our temple..."

"Bern..." said Roy, looking at the temple. "We know where to look, so let's go!"

"Wait!" said Sophia. "I sense Kuranga's... presense in there... it's not good..."

"Well, nowin' 'im, 'e's proberby dere becus 'e saw me comin'," said Willie with a shrug as the army neared the castle gates. "Let's git at 'em!"

And Willie ran off into the town, which in turn forced Roy to run after him. The army, not sure what else to do, charged after these two, and everybody seemed to enter the city briefly before storming the temple. There was a pour soul guarding it, but he had lost his soul after he was run through by many a swordperson's sword.

* * *

The interior of the temple was rather strange; there were walkways all over the temple that stood just over a large pool of water. The water seemed to give the inside of the temple a crystal blue hue that really shimmered off of the rather high ceiling of the temple. All of this, Willie noticed with one amazed eye as he, Roy, and Sophia entered the temple with the Lycian Alliance Army following them pretty soon afterwards.

"Wow, dis place be perty, mu'um!" said Willie in a voice that emitted hushed wonder.

"No kidding," said Roy, looking around him with a childlike wonder in his eyes. "How is it this beautiful?"

"The temple... was built over... an oasis," said Sophia softly. "Here lies the holy tome Forblaze..."

"And we must keep Bern from getting to it," said Roy with a shrug. "Hey, if it saves your village as well, why not?"

"I den't dink we 'ave a choice, Governor!" cried Willie as he noticed a bunch of men with axes running towards their position. "We've get dem comin' roight at us!"

"Oh, dear..." said Roy, drawing his rapier quickly. "Sophia! Stand back! We'll take care of this!"

"No..." she said softly, Willie just then noticing a dark magic tome peeking out from under her garnments. "I can help..."

Before Roy could object, he heard the shouts of the warriors that were coming towards them, and so he relented wordlessly. Instead, he leapt at one of the warriors at the right time, proceeding to dodge an axe blow and then to stab the warrior in the heart with his rapier.

Willie let a fireball fly at another warrior, who stumbled back a little bit. However, a red blur came from behind him shortly afterwards, and before Willie could say anything the form of Rutger was seen jumping onto another of Bern's units as the warrior he had swiped at suddenly burst from where he was cut in half by Rutger's blade.

"Eh," he mumbled, more to himself than to anybody else. "Dat man be crazy..."

Behind him, he heard Sophia mutter a few phrases, and then suddenly a dark ball of energy seemed to materialize from underneath one of the warriors just ahead of them. The ball of energy then compressed, taking a warrior with it and inflicting some damage. Seeing this and recognizing that it was dark magic, Willie ran forward and followed Sophia's attack with a fireball that sailed straight at the opponent in question. The man was caught on fire, where he stood and fell face-first into the water.

As Roy, Rutger, and Sophia weakened the units around him, Willie kept a constant eye out for either the black dragon or the black hair that would signal Kuranga's arrival on the scene. Willie knew that Kuranga would do the same thing what with being able to detect auras, but Willie felt it was a safe estimate to look for him as well.

However, as he was concentrating on this, he suddenly felt the walkway give way underneath him, and then he found himself drenched in water. Roy, who had just kicked a warrior into the water, noticed this and took a break from fighting to offer a hand to the sputtering youth.

"Here!" cried Roy as Willie grabbed the hand all too quickly. With a good pull, Willie was back on dry land, coughing rather harshly as he was helped up by Roy.

"I be foine, Governor!" said the young boy in between coughs. Emma, who had flown up prior to Willie falling into the water, landed back on Willie's shoulder and chirped briefly.

"These platforms sink into the water?" cried Roy as he ran down the platform while steering Willie to do so. "Why didn't we know that?"

"I den't no, Governor," said Willie, giving a quick scan of the area. However, this was promptly dropped when he noticed the unmistakeable form of a black dragon approaching their position.

Roy shrugged back at this sight, retreating a little as Emma flew onto the lord's head as opposed to remaining on Willie's shoulder. The Cockney boy, who was somewhat unfazed by this, ran over to the dragon and held his arms wide.

"Keranga!" cried Willie. "Dere yeh are!"

Roy gave a puzzled look towards Willie, but before the Pherean lord could ask what was happening the dragon suddenly shifted into a rather tall, burly man with jet black hair that looked to Willie.

"Ah, Willie!" said Kuranga with a nod. "The auras said that I would meet you here, and indeed I have!"

"W-what?" cried Roy, running over to where Willie stood as Emma flew back to Willie's shoulder with a surprised trill. "This is that Kuranga person you've been telling us about?"

"Yep, Governor!" cried Willie with a beaming smile extending from either side of his face. "Keranga, dis be Roy 'ere!"

"A pleasure, sir Roy," said the dragon laguz with a polite nod.

"It's all mine," said Roy with a curt nod. "Why are we being nice in the middle of a battlefield?"

"Ah, yes," said Kuranga, turning around to see a new batch of warriors head towards them. "Pardon my memory."

As he noticed this, he shifted into his dragon form, the dragon towering over the soldiers that Bern had sent out. Almost immediately they stopped their assault to look at the dragon, wondering why he had switched sides. And then, when they least expected it, Kuranga's grey breath descended down onto the group of soldiers that was clustered around the walkway. The small unit was sent scattering all over the place, and before they knew what they were doing they had all jumped into the water, where, surprisingly, the effects of the breath did not wear off. Roy saw this and was amazed; Willie saw this and shrugged a little.

"Same ol' Keranga dat I new bevore, eh?" asked Willie as he walked beside the black dragon.

Roy shook his head in a double take just as Willie turned to the lord.

"Don't yeh worry none, governor!" cried the young street boy. "We kin take et ferm 'ere!"

And before Roy could say much else, Kuranga let out his grey, misty breath yet again. The breath flew right into the soldiers that had begun to appear just then, and screams of agony were suddenly heard. These sounds were followed shortly afterwards either by the clank of armor hitting the walkways or loud splashes. Over the clamor, Willie began casting fireballs on the stragglers that broke through the breath with their shields up. Not wasting any time and catching on quickly, Roy then ran up to the soldiers that the boy had fired his fireballs at and slashed at the soldiers with his sword. Working like this, the group slowly rounded the corner, hearing the plink of the walkways sinking behind them as they moved. Finally, however, he enemies stopped coming, and so they proceeded rather quickly to the room that was in the center of the temple. There, Kuranga shifted back into his human form, and when the three of them looked inside they found a rather stodgy middle-aged man standing next to the altar where the tome Forblaze was resting, and when his eyes fell upon Kuranga the general was shocked.

"Kuranga!" stated the general. "What is the meaning of this! I thought you agreed to work with me to attain your friend and keep the villagers safe!"

"I did," said the dragon with a nod as Roy looked at him suspiciously. "But there is one thing you should know about me. I am capable of reading the future, and I can read your mind."

"W-what?" cried the general. "So then--!"

"Your mind dictated that you would not have followed up on your end of the bargain," said the dragon laguz with a curt nod as Roy stared at him somewhat dumbfounded. "And the future dictated that if I joined you, I would have run into my friend and saved the villagers."

"And it 'appened, Governor!" gloated Willie as he brought attention to himself to the general. "Iffun yeh don't moind me tellin' yeh, I 'appen to be de vriend 'e was lookin' fer!"

"And besides, your army is trapped here in this temple by the Alliance," replied Kuranga, smirking as the enemy man seemed to become progressively angrier by the moment. "And since that is blocking the exit of all of your soldiers, there is nothing you can do to attack the villagers."

"W... why... you!" cried the general, rushing towards Kuranga.

Before he could do much, though, Roy came to out of his amazed state long enough to kick the general away as he rushed at a then transforming Kuranga. When the dragon was seen in his full glory, he wasted no time in letting out some of his deadly breath on the enemy general. Only a fireball was needed before the general was defeated rather quickly by the two Greljedans, and the boy from Alexandra delivered this rather quickly.

After this, Kuranga shifted back to his human state, where he stood towering over Roy as he nodded.

"Confused?" asked the dragon.

Roy shook his head, running a hand into the red hair on his head as he did. "Yes!" said Roy. "How can you read the future?"

"The auras," said Kuranga. "The essence of life itself can tell me things about what people are thinking and give me clues on what is to come. It is my duty as a seer to read these and predict events. And usually, the auras are never wrong..."

"Iffun yeh must no, Governor, 'e got 'imselv taken once wen deh baddies didn't want 'im tellin' novin' on our side," added Willie as he gestured towards Kuranga.

"Ah," said Roy, nodding as he seemed to understand what the two were working at. "I'm still a little confused, but I get the gist of it. So, how are the villagers?"

"Well, why don't we go back to the surface and see?" asked Kuranga with a nod.

Roy looked at the altar where Forblaze rested, but decided against taking it away right then; if the village was indeed safe, they would probably present the weapon as a gift anyway. So he nodded and left the temple rather promptly.

* * *

Just outside, there seemed to be a crowd of people waiting for Roy there, and when Willie and Kuranga surfaced a few seconds afterwards a cheer went around the village as if something miraculous had happened. A somewhat elderly man walked over to the young lord of Pherae, and gave a polite nod to both Kuranga and Roy. It was then that Willie noticed the rather scenic desert town surrounding them, with quaint little houses of palm wood surrounding the temple with a few palm trees scattered in various positions. The crowd consisted of both humans and maybe a stray dragon here or there that was somehow staying transformed for an extended period of time. The sand whirled around the village, but now it had the effect of a screen, and the surrounding area was beautiful thanks to this.

"Thank you, stranger." The elder's first line broke Willie's wonder at the scenery that he had missed, so he snapped at attention quickly once the elder said this.

"Don't worry about it," said Roy as he nodded politely. "It's all I can do for a woman who saved the life of a friend."

"Ah, yes, Sophia told me about it," said the elder. "General Roy, I presume?"

"Yes, sir, but please don't call me 'general'," said the Lycian youth with a bow of his head. He then gestured to Willie and Kuranga on either side of him. "But these two helped me out quite a bit."

"Ah, sir Kuranga," said the elder with a respectful nod. "I see you managed to stick it out well enough."

"And I even found my friend, Willie," said the seer, indicating Willie's presence.

"Good t' meet yeh, Governor!" exclaimed the boy from Alexandra with a nod. "Dank yeh fer takin' care ef 'im!"

"It was no problem," said the elder, turning back to Roy as he spoke. "For saving us, a reward is in order. You may take the sacred weapon that rests in the temple."

"Thank you," said Roy with a respectful nod.

"And in addition, we shall try to accomodate you," said the elder. "Your army looks like it has not rested in a while."

"Ah, thank you, sir," said the noble, bowing politely to the older man.

"Think nothing of it," said the elder. "Now if you'll excuse me, I should retrieve that tome for you."

"Allow me to accompany you, sir," said Roy as he and the elder entered the temple quietly.

There was a brief silence after their departure, and then the village went back to its quiet, dreary self as they rushed back home to prepare the accomodations for the Alliance. As they did this, Kuranga turned to Willie.

"So I see you've landed here too," said the dragon laguz.

"Yep, Governor," said Willie. "I wound up in dem 'Western Isles', I did. And wen dem lords dere took me in, Roy 'ere came in an' took me back to be free!"

"Capture, I assume?" asked the dragon.

When the boy nodded in reply, he closed his eyes. "Great," he said. "Willie, I have reason to believe that Ike, Maria, and Fiordiligi are still alive."

This comment took Willie completely by surprise, and so he jumped up rather quickly.

"Wet?" cried the boy, his surprise expression quickly turning into a frown. "But 'ow?"

"The auras seem to communicate that to me," said Kuranga. "That at the very least they will reappear."

"But didn't yeh see dem, Governor?" cried Willie, finding it hard to believe Kuranga even though he knew that in the end the auras he read never lied.

"That hand had some involvement in this," said Kuranga. "It missed you and I, but for some reason it dragged Maria, Ike, and Fiordiligi somewhere. Where that place is, I have yet to determine."

"I 'ope yeh kin do it, Governor," replied Willie, wiping the sweat off of his brow that had somehow appeared. "I den't dink I kin never stand one ef dem peeples 'ere much longer iffun yeh don't..."

The two of them walked away from the temple towards one of the houses as they conversed, while in the shadows a young Etrurian noblewoman was watching the scene. She was not alone, as it turned out, for her brother was standing right behind her as well.

"So, what did you gather about that?" asked Klein as he looked on.

"Oh, I don't know," said Clarine. "I have a guess, but it's probably not correct. Oh, I hope Roy finds a chance to talk to him tonight..."

"I'm sure he will," replied her older brother as he patted her shoulder reassuringly. "I'm sure he will."

* * *

That night, Willie had taken to looking out of his window in silence. For being in the middle of a town with a large sandstorm around it, Willie was feeling rather cold that night, and that was what kept him up. Kuranga was sleeping in a seperate room of the rather small household that they were being housed in that night, and Emma was fast asleep on the bedpost. Willie would have woken her up, but he didn't want to wake anybody else up, and since the cold kept him awake he looked outside basically the entire night.

As he was looking out, he noticed the form of Roy approaching the house. Seeing this, he walked over to the window to get a look at the young Lycian lord, who beckoned him out into the darkness with a hand signal. Willie shrugged before he quietly left the room he had been given, stepping through the remainder of the rather small house without a sound. When he stepped outside, he gestured to the house.

"Wy'd yeh get me 'ere at dis toime?" asked Willie as softly as he could as he stepped out of the house with Roy by his side.

"I wanted to ask you about something," said Roy as the two of them moved towards the temple in the center of the town under the cover of darkness. "I've been meaning to ask you this since we were about to leave the Western Isles, but after that I found absolutely no time to ask."

"Roight ferm one place teh deh over, eh?" asked Willie with a wink as they came upon the temple. The boy sat on a rock close by the temple, but when he gestured Roy to do the same the lord declined with a wave of his hand.

"Yeah," said Roy with a shrug. "Listen, I heard about what happened with Clarine, and I--"

"Oh, no yeh don't!" Willie almost said this way too loud for comfort, but thankfully he had the judgement to keep his voice down in the middle of the night. "Yeh ain't never pairin' me wiv 'er again!"

"I never said I was going to pair you with her," said Roy. "But anyway, he found this behavior of yours to be a little unsettling."

"Well, Governor, whadd'ye dink Oi'd do wen dat lady goes arund tawkin' abut stuff yeh don't care novin' for?" asked Willie with a shrug.

Roy pursed his lips together, getting Willie's point but still not satisfied with the answer. "I don't know..." he said. "Most people would put up with it a lot more than you did, so I was wondering if there was anything else."

There was a short pause as the boy's gaze averted to the grains of sand beneath them, and then Roy heard a sigh come from the boy's frame.

"Well, Governor, iffun yeh mus' no, it's dat I dink she's goin' arund breakin' a vriend..." said the boy softly.

"Breaking your friend?" asked Roy, kneeling down to Willie's level to try to re-establish the eye contact. "What do you mean?"

It was then that Willie looked up, his jade eyes cast towards the lord's knee before they connected with opal just a few feet in front of him.

"Well, governor, she remoinds me of a vriend I 'ad," began Willie. "'Er name's Viordilegi, it be."

"That didn't quite answer the question," said Roy as softly as he could.

"I was gettin' dere, Governor," said Willie, his eyes giving a brief glint of anger in the moonlight as he said this. "It's jes'... Viordilegi be koind ef full of... erm... proide, I ges, bet at least she didn't go on dings abut 'ow yeh go on loike a lady. Bet wiv dis Clarine 'ere, she den't no novin' abut wen teh keep it down."

Eye contact was lost as Willie looked in the space between his legs as he started fiddling with his own fingers. "Deh ding 'ere is det Clarine remoinds me ef Viordilegi tons. And fer me teh dink ef Viordilegi as bein' so full ef 'erself loike dat..."

"Don't worry about it," said Roy. "Your memory shouldn't be affected by another person."

"Bet I den't no woy it 'appens," said the boy softly. "I jes'... Mebeh it's deh one ding I wonted teh ask ef 'er..."

"And what would that be?" asked Roy.

"Teh learn 'ow teh speak loike dem genteelty, Governor," replied the boy, looking down at the ground. "Oi wanted teh ask Viordilegi teh teach me, bet den she went into de water. An' now dat Clarine tawked abut me manner o' speakin', I didn't feel no good abut 'er..."

The Lycian noble nodded briefly, seeing what Willie was talking about. "I see..." he said. "You still believe she's alive, don't you?"

"I dink so," replied the branded boy with a nod. "And deh ding is, Viordilegi wes faivful teh deh ones she loved. An' I den't wanna do novin' abut tawkin' loike genteelty iffun it means Oi'm betrayin' 'er..."

"But Willie, you're not betraying her by trying to learn with another woman!" said Roy in a somewhat alarmed tone.

"Dat's wot it feels loike, Governor," said Willie as his gaze remained fixed on the sand. "Dat's all Oi 'ave teh say..."

Roy knelt on the ground, one arm supported by one of his bent knees as he looked down at the ground briefly. After thinking briefly, he patted Willie on the shoulder.

"I'll tell you what," said Roy. "As soon as I'm able to, I'll have a little chat with Clarine, and I'll tell her what you just told me. After that, I'll see what we can come up with. All right?"

Willie was silent for quite a while, only nodding lightly as Roy stood up.

"All right then," said the lord. "Good night, Willie."

And with that, the Lycian noble strode over to the house that he had been resting in himself. Willie lingered there where they had talked for a minute or two, hugging himself. He did so partly because of the cold, and partly to feel the now slightly worn fabric of the shirt that he had kept on his person since he had first stepped foot in Jericho with Ike and Maria and Gaston and Kuranga. Even then the boy was able to picture the business of the market that day, the two suitors who weren't suitors at all, the way Fiordiligi's smile shone in the sunlight, the way her eyes glittered in the twilight of their first night outside of Jericho, and most of all the feeling that time had stopped when Katchei had turned her into stone right before his very eyes.

As he thought of this, a tear rolled down his cheek that he didn't bother to hold back. Only now did he realize how much he truly missed Fiordiligi, and it was after he had let his heart out abouther to Roy. And so he sat there for a good ten minutes or so, crying silent tears that he bore himself, his hands gripping the soft fabric of his shirt so hard the knuckles were devoid of any color. His tears were reflected in the moonlight, and as they rolled down his cheeks he realized that no matter what, he wanted Fiordiligi back to him.


	6. Chapter 6: A Revelation

And, we've gotten to one of the cruxes of the subplots of this thing. Let's resolve it and move on with the plot, right?

Unfortunately, this might also be the last chapter of the spinoff book. I'm just not finding any inspiration for this anymore, and besides, it's not like it's that important to begin with. So I might end the spinoff book here. If so, I'll add in a light cliffy here that doesn't leave a whole lot to be asked, and if I do continue with this then I'll go ahead and continue from there.

* * *

**_Arcadia was rescued from Bern's forces by Roy's momentum through Etruria and the Nabata desert. By this time, however, the rebellion in Etruria has strengthened such that the revolutionary forces are beginning to tire out after Bern unsuccessfully redirected their troops to attack Arcadia._**

**_Now, Roy makes his way to the capitol of Etruria as quickly as he can, Willie and now Kuranga both in tow as they tag along with the Lycian lord. They only have a short distance to go before they liberate Etruria, and Roy closes the gaps awfully quickly..._**

Chapter 6: A Revelation

The army had taken straight for the capitol of Etruria once they had left Arcadia. Now, the army had camped outside of the capitol, waiting to wrest the capitol from the revolutionary forces that had taken over the castle. The Alliance army had to make a brief stop on the way to collect some dragon girl that had escaped Arcadia to see the world, but thankfully Roy had managed to find her before any substantial harm had been done to her.

It was on this backdrop that Willie sat alone in the tent that he and Kuraga now shared. Emma was perched on his shoulder, and the two of them had remained silent for quite a while. Really, there had been so much to talk about lately that neither of them had really conversed with each other for a substantial period of time. The boy was beginning to grow unnerved by the silence in the tent that was beginning to grow a little dark in the twilight. Finally, he had taken enough of the silence, and so in an attempt to break it, he cleared his throat.

Barely was he able to get a word out to the bird before he heard the slight shift of the tent flap opening. There knelt Clarine, her eyes hard-set on something. However, there was something understanding in her eyes as well, and that was enough to keep Willie quiet for a few seconds as the Etrurian noblewoman stepped in, closing the tent behind her.

"Roy told me everything," she began, sitting down on the ground. "And I came over here to talk with you..."

"Well den?" asked Willie, somehow still not believing Roy had told her anything. "Wet did 'e tell deh genteelmen?"

"Well, if you say so," said Clarine rather solemnly, brushing some strands of hair that had gotten in her face back behind her ear. "He told me that I reminded you of a friend that you had who looked almost exactly like me. He also said that you felt I was destroying your memory of said person by being a brat, and--"

"So 'e did tell yeh somevin', eh?" interrupted Willie, nodding as he noticed that Clarine had gotten the major details right. "And whadd'ye 'ave teh say abut it?"

Clarine's eyebrows arched up visibly for a second, but she proceeded to take a deep breath and she looked relatively normal again.

"I don't know," said the noble uncertainly. "Honestly? Things have been so strange since you came into my life. I honestly never met a person with such fierce independence like the kind you have..."

"Inde... Indpernd... Wet's dat?" asked Willie after fumbling with the pronunciation of the word.

Clarine shifted a little in her seat. "Let me rephrase that," she said. "I've never seen anybody who stands up for themselves quite like yourself before."

"Yeh 'aven't, mu'um?" asked the boy, his interest now piqued as he listened to what Clarine has to say.

"Yes," said Clarine, her gaze averting to the floor. "And to be honest? I..."

Clarine looked back at Willie, uncertainty muddling her earnest purple eyes.

"I'm... jealous," she said finally.

"Jelus?" asked Willie, slightly taken aback. "Wy, dough? Yer deh ladeh! Cain't yeh go arund bein' 'igh 'n' great loike a ladeh does?"

The noblewoman shook her head. "I wish it was that simple," she replied. "In the court, I feel... Oh, how should I say it... Trapped. It's a comfortable trapped, but nevertheless I feel a little... how do you say...?"

"Tite?" asked Willie, trying to get the gist of what his companion was trying to say.

"I guess..." she said. "The court is a fine life, but at the same time I feel like a part of me is always hiding, waiting for me to look it in the eyes..."

"So wen yeh put it loike dat..." said Willie, frowning in concentration.

"I guess a part of me just wants freedom..." she said. "I think that's why I got so mad in that cave. I'm not sure though. I can't quite remember what I was feeling that day..."

"But deh point is dat yeh ain't gonna tell me novin' abut 'ow teh treat a ladeh proberly, yeah?" asked Willie.

"Well, that depends on whether you decide to take speech lessons seriously," replied Clarine with a chuckle. "If you do, expect to hear me yell at you a lot. If you don't..."

"Well, I dunno, mu'um," said the boy, looking down at the ground sadly. "I don't dink I'd be goin' wiv 'er iffun I did do dat..."

"Why do you say that?" asked the noblewoman, expression perked in curiosity.

"Well, mu'um, Viordilegi 'ad a love," began Willie simply. "An' den dis love went roight an' went away. And den wen dese sutirs came along, she went to were she douht 'er love was..."

"I assume that's your way of saying she was a fierce believer in 'fidelity', then?" asked Clarine, emphasizing fidelity to give it a name for Willie."

"Videlty?" asked Willie, surprised. "Is dat wet yeh genteelty call it?"

"Yes," said Clarine. "I see you have feelings for her, then."

"I..." began Willie, but before he could continue, he stopped, a deep blush forming on his cheeks.

The Etrurian noble laughed softly before continuing. "I understand. After all, love is a wonderful thing," she said, ruffling some of his brown hair as the street boy yelped in surprise. "I shall tell you what; I'll give you a day to think about it. If you do decide to take the speech lessons, you and I will swear not to get into a romantic relationship to honor her... memory?"

"I dink so..." said Willie.

"All right," said Clarine. "I'll give you a day to think about it, and when I see you tomorrow I expect an answer!"

"All roight den, mu'um," said Willie, a smile creeping on his face as he said this. He held out a hand to Clarine, the woman almost flinching as she rose. "Vriends?"

Clarine looked at the hand briefly before shrugging lightly and taking her hand in his.

"Friends," she repeated.

She then left the tent, managing to steal a glance back a the boy she had only just truly met without him knowing as she closed the tent flap. As soon as she left, Emma chirped flatly, Willie's attention diverted for a brief second as he looked back at the robin.

"Oh, don't yeh worry none, mu'um!" said Willie. "I'm sure she'll be foine."

Emma gave a short trill, unconvinced at this assurance from Willie. The boy shrugged in response to this.

"I den't see wet yer probem wiv 'er is," he said. "We made ep. Wet more deh yeh want?"

Submissively, the robin chirped before flying off into the tent. With a shrug, Willie remained seated, lost in thought about Clarine and what their make-up session might have indicated.

* * *

The army had managed to breach the walls of the castle of Aquelia, capitol of Etruria. And now the force had split up, leading their way through various soldiers of what seemed to be Bern's troops as they tried to defend their post in the castle.

This was considerably difficult with Kuranga on the Alliance Army's side, however; so far, he and Willie had been blazing through the foes ahead of them much in the same fashion as they did in the temple. However, Roy was still accompanying them, as Kuranga was doing his best not to tear down the castle with his breath and thus had to hold back. Helping them was Dieck as per Willie's request, although he was awestruck at the sheer power that Kuranga seemed to radiate all of the time.

The four of them were a rather unstoppable force because of this, and enemy after enemy was cut down as they journeyed their way through the hallway that was filled with enemies. There was a seperate force headed down the other hallway, but the enemies seemed to be concentrated on the three people and the dragon that they were failing to defeat.

Seeingly in no time, the four of them had made it to the throne room, where Willie saw what looked to be a rather pretentious general sitting on the Etrurian throne, a lance in his hand as he glared at the group with hatred in his eyes. Kuranga turned heel to go to the aid of the other squad that was heading down the halls as the four of them had agreed to do as Willie, Roy, and Dieck faced down the man's glare with equal hatred.

"Why'd your dragon turn around?" asked the general. "I was hoping I'd give him a good... welcome..."

"Not a chance," said Roy, rapier out in front of him as he spoke. "I figured you'd try and convert him to your side!"

"'E wud've seen it anyway, Governor!" cried Willie, his hand out in front of him as Dieck simply growled. "Yeh ain't gonna get away wiv novin' 'ere, yeh got it?"

"What the hell did you just say?" asked the general rather loudly, blonde lochs falling over his face.

"Yeh 'eard me, Governor!" replied the street boy with good ardor. "Yer goin' down!"

And without much of a warning after that, Willie released a fireball at the general. Seeing this, he dodged quickly, the fireball hitting the throne. Thankfully, there seemed to be no major damage done to the object as it stood perfectly normally after the blast.

"Why, you!" cried the man who had held Etruria's throne. "I, the great general Narshen, will put you in your place!"

The man then charged Willie from across the room, lance raised high in the air as he let out a rather loud yell in his anger. However, before he could get to Willie, Dieck had kicked Narshen in the stomach, sending the man flying back as Willie smirked, preparing another fireball.

"It'll take more than that to take us down!" taunted Dieck, his blade at the ready as Narshen stood up after he had hit the floor.

The general simply replied with a hateful scowl before he raised his lance and charged at the three of them again. This time, though, they all jumped out of the way as the general tried to slash them with the lance. Willie launched the fireball he had charged at the general of Bern, who somehow managed to jump to the side of this. Before he could retaliate, however, Roy jumped in, trying to get a blow in with his sword but failing to do so as it was blocked.

The Lycian general was not phased, however, and kicked Narshen's legs out from under him. He suddenly felt the man's lance do the same to him, however, and then he found himself on the floor, rolling out of the way as he noticed Dieck jumping over to Narshen. The blow from the mercenary was much more successful in regards to doing something against the general of Bern, as his lance had broken in half from the blow and the general was left staring at it in wonder.

Before he could ponder, though, Willie launched another fireball at him in the silence, this one which Narshen also managed to dodge. However, much to the general's chagrin, Willie opened his collar a little and suddenly Emma was on Narshen, pecking away at the general's head as he dropped the lance and waved his arms around wildly.

However, instead of charging Narshen, Roy and Dieck just stared at Narshen's ministrations with a look of disbelief on their faces. "Willie, what did you teach her?" asked Roy, his eyes fixated on Narshen.

"Wet're yeh waitin' fer?" asked Willie loudly. "Git at 'im!"

Emma flew back to Willie soon after, though, as Narshen had bent down and grabbed the butt of his lance to swat the robin away. This had not worked, but it kept Emma off of the general and back to the Cockney boy.

They barely had any time to think before Narshen tossed the butt of his lance at them, Willie ducking down to avoid getting hit by the projectile as Roy and Dieck both charged the general of Bern. Narshen quickly bent down to collect the other half of the lance that he had used, but somehow he had not picked it up fast enough, for then he ended up ducking under Dieck's sword slash in desperation. As he came up from this, he blocked a slash from Roy that would have connected if not for these fast actions. However, Narshen immediately felt the impact of sharp steel entering his body, and as he looked to his left he found that Dieck had taken a second swing with his sword that connected.

Narshen had no words to say as he fell down, the world seeming to become enclosed by a black space around him as his lifeblood spilled onto the ground. Emma trilled shrilly and hid in Willie's shirt, the Cockney boy noticing this immediately and patting the spot where he figured she would be hiding.

"Well, Governor, I told yeh we wuld," said Willie with a bow at the general.

"Yeah," said Roy with a nod. "Never underestimate three people with a will is the thing to say here, I guess."

"Yep, governor," said Willie with a nod. "Now you git det king ef dis place out ef werever 'e is, an' let's git seme more done!"

Roy nodded, and as he went ventured further into the castle Willie and Dieck looked to each other, nodding respectfully to each other.

"Well, that was quick," said Dieck. "And if memory serves me correctly, that was one of Bern's best generals..."

Willie's eyebrows arched up almost immediately in surprise. "It wes?" he asked. "I didn't dink 'e was worv anyvin' deh way 'e fought us dere."

"Yep," said Dieck, confirming Willie's thoughts as he pulled his blade out of Narshen's front. "Well, you think we should leave Roy be for now?"

The boy simply nodded, Emma peeking out from his collar. "Yep, Governor," he replied. "I needed teh tawk wiv Keranga any'ow..."

The two of them left the throne room, though by that time the battle had ended, and as the two of them emerged a cheer spread throughout the now-tired squad that had taken care of the other hallway for Roy and his small troupe. From somewhere in the crowd, Willie could feel Clarine smiling at him, even if he could not see her smile.

* * *

Kuranga sat in the tent pondering quietly, reading the auras that were around him as he came. Thankfully, there seemed not to be enough auras to cause an aura shock to the dragon laguz, so he peered into each aura at his own pace and dissected it as he sat cross-legged on the ground.

In this state of meditation, the dragon felt truly at home. True, there were the times when he was called upon to socialize with others, but his energy derived from meditative states where he could pull at the auras and see what they told him.

This particular aura reading had revealed some rather perturbing content, however, but Kuranga still saw the light at the end signifying that everything would be all right. Before he could think on much else, though, something in the back of his mind heard the tent flap opening. He rapidly opened his eyes, breaking the state of meditation to find Willie standing there, his hands on his knees as he looked at the dragon.

"Dere yeh are!" cried Willie. "I been lookin' all over fer yeh, Governer!"

"Ah, Willie," replied the dragon with a nod. "Listen, there is something I must tell you that is set in the auras. There is good news and bad news there. Do you want to hear both?"

"Well, Governor, iffun yeh don't moind novin', den kin yeh tell me deh good stuff virst?" asked Willie as he sat down.

"Of course," said Kuranga with a nod. "The good news is that Ike, Maria, and Fiordiligi are still alive."

The boy's eye went wide with excitement upon hearing this. "Yeh mean dey be... aloive?"

"Yes," said Kuranga. "Unfortunately, they will be stuck in the underworld for a rather long time."

"Wet?" asked Willie, a little confused by this development. "I won't see dem agin?"

The laguz shook his head. "No," he said. "You'll get to see them again. Which brings me to the bad news; I will not live to see the rest of your journeys."

Willie's emerald eye widened for a second, regarding the scarlet eyes of Kuranga with a strange kind of shock.

"Dat ain't never true!" he cried. "Yeh ain't gonna die on none ef us!"

"The auras never lie," replied Kuranga. "There will be much turmoil at the same hour that determines the fate of this continent. But at the right time, my death will ensue."

"Whet?" cried a now somewhat distraught Willie. "Dat cain't 'appen! It ain't never gonna 'appen! I won't let novin' 'appen to yeh!"

"There is no stopping the wheel of fate," replied Kuranga, calm despite Willie's apparent distress. "I have seen these events, and I am prepared to face them with my best will."

"Bet Keranga, wet'll we do wivout yeh?" asked Willie as he dropped to his knees.

But the dragon laguz simply shook his head.

"You survived without me once on Greljedo," he replied simply. "And you survived without me when I tried to kill Maria's baby. You will prevail, young one. Besides, I thought you hated me at one point for trying to kill Maria's baby..."

The street boy had opened his mouth to reply when he realized how right Kuranga was. Quite soon after that, he felt the old feelings of hatred towards the dragon laguz flood his system, and for a brief second an angry flame flashed in his eye. However, this quickly subsided as he realized the implications of what he had been saying.

Kuranga was ready to die. There was almost a quality of Sharotal that flashed in Kuranga's being for a second, a strange tranquility that only came after a great awakening.

And that was all it took for Willie to bury himself in Kuranga's robes, weeping his heart out to the dragon laguz. Upon feeling Willie's body on his, Kuranga was quite surprised by this. He simply wrapped his arms around the boy comfortingly. After what felt like a few minutes of this, the boy seperated from the dragon, pulling at his eyepatch to let some of the water that was stinging his eye socket out.

"Te tell yeh de truv, I'm jelus," he said simply, sniffling lightly at the end of the sentence. "I want teh walk into me deav loike yeh..."

"Your time is a long time away," replied the seer simply, patting Willie's brown hair softly as he spoke. "Just remember that every death is inevitable, and that it is how you deal with it that defines your final moments. Go in fighting, and you shall be remembered as a true hero, even in death. Go in cowardice, and you shall be known as a selfish hero who hid in the final hour. Keep this in mind; years from now, you will need this knowledge."

Willie nodded, sniffling again.

"All roight, Governor," he replied simply.


End file.
